Community-Led Tourism Leaders | Scottish Connections Fund

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• Connecting Scotland and Canada: Community-Led Tourism Leaders Sharing & Learning Together | Scottish Connections Fund

  Connecting Scotland and Canada: Community-Led Tourism Leaders Sharing & Learning Together | Scottish Connections Fund
  • This fully funded programme brings together leaders in community-led tourism organisations in the Highland and Islands of Scotland and Eastern Canada. The series of 90-minute webinars each feature an inspirational speaker, sharing their experiences of bringing together diverse communities around a common vision of community-led tourism. There will be plenty of time for connecting with our peers in Canada and Scotland, exchanging experiences and taking learning from the things that have gone well and not so well.

    
    

    Our Speakers

    Feb 16 | Morgan Murray - Director of Culture and Community Development at the Municipality of the County of Inverness. He will be talking about Cape Breton, community led tourism across the region. 
    
     March 2 | Kimberly Orren - Founder of Fishing for Success, a non-profit tourism and educational organization promoting traditional fishing skills and diversity in Newfoundland fisheries. 
    
    March 9 | Janette Park - The second Scottish session highlights Stromness Museum from the Orkney Isles and will be presented by their curator Janette Park who recently also became a local councillor.  Stromness and the Orkney Isles have strong connections with Canada and especially Hudson Bay.  The museum has an incredible collection of artefacts allowing a plethora of stories to be brought back to life for locals and visitors from across the globe.  Stromness Museum is the second oldest independent museum in Scotland and dates back to 1837 when the Stromness Natural History Society was established. 

    
    March 16 | Russell Fraser - The first of the two Scottish sessions will focus on sharing the story of and learnings from SCOTO, the Scottish Community Tourism Network which was set up in 2022.  And we will then showcase the national award winning Loch Ness Hub & Travel in Dumnadrochit on the banks of Loch Ness with SCOTO's founding Director Russell Fraser. Loch Ness Hub is owned and operated as a Community Benefit Society, in premises formerly housing a Visit Scotland Information Centre and public toilets.   Russell is managing director of the Hub growing from a social enterprise start up, to employing 15 people with an annual turnover of £700,000. With surplus profits going back into the local community, this community led tourism initiative has a real focus on People, Place and Purpose.

    
    

    Who is it for?

    This programme is for leaders of community-led tourism organisations and place based social enterprises in and around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and in Eastern Canada.
    
    

    Programme Details

    Sessions: Monday 16 February 2026 Monday 2 March 2026 Monday 9 March 2026 Monday 16 March 2026	Times: (NT) 3pm - 4:30pm (AST) 3:30pm - 5pm (GMT) 6:30pm - 8pm	Where: Online, Via Zoom Cost: Fully Funded thanks to the Scottish Connections Fund

    
    Thought provoking, empowering, long lasting and relevant.
    
    

    • Understand the effect and importance of Culture on the people of your communities.
    • Share challenges associated with managing the impacts of tourism in local communities.
    • Hear inspiring stories of community-led tourism in both Scotland and Canada.
    • Develop an understanding for community-led tourism and the role it plays in your area
    • Connect with peers working in similarly place-based organisations.

    
    Your Facilitator

    

    As well as being a well-known traditional Gaelic singer who has performed and tutored all over the world, Anne Martin runs Whitewave – Skye’s Outdoor Centre with her husband John White. You can find out more about Anne here.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Our Partners

    

    
    
    SCOTO CIC - the Scottish Community Tourism Network - was launched in 2022.  This grass roots network is unique within the UK providing peer to peer support to over 480 networkers, delivering direct support to Scotland’s communities through our Press Pause(R) programme and regular online and face to face networking events.   www.scoto.co.uk 

    
    

    Purposeful Group partners with nonprofits, governments and communities across Atlantic Canada to deliver bold ideas, innovative solutions and measurable impact. Their mission is to help organizations and communities to thrive while making meaningful contributions to the people, places and purposes they serve.

       
    

    
    

    More Information

    Iain Boyd | iain@socialenterprise.academy
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    Thanks to the Scottish Government's funding via the Scottish Connections Fund, and to our partners in Scotland and Canada who are making it possible to deliver this opportunity.