Form­al Board Paper 3

26 June 2026 Page 1 of 9

For inform­a­tion

Title: Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Devel­op­ment Plan Pre­pared by: Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel

Pur­pose

The Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Devel­op­ment Plan is one of a series of plans that sit along­side the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP). Along with the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism and Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plans, these plans col­lect­ively describe the Park Author­ity and part­ners’ work in rela­tion to tour­ism, vis­it­or facil­it­ies and ser­vices and the man­age­ment of vis­it­or impacts on the Park. This report gives Board mem­bers over­sight of pro­gress towards the plan’s object­ives and is being presen­ted to the Board now 2026 as roughly the mid-point for the cur­rent plan and as cur­rent pro­gress towards these object­ives has implic­a­tions for the con­tent of the next NPPP.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is asked to:

α) Note the pro­gress towards deliv­ery of the object­ives con­tained with­in the Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Devel­op­ment Plan.

Stra­tegic context

1. The Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Devel­op­ment Plan describes in more detail spe­cif­ic activ­it­ies that were pro­posed to be under­taken by the Park Author­ity or part­ners to sup­port the deliv­ery of Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) object­ives. In par­tic­u­lar this plan describes key activ­it­ies that would assist in achiev­ing the fol­low­ing NPPP object­ives: a) People

    i. B5. Community assets and land B10. A Park for All
    ii. B11. Volunteering and outdoor learning
   

   b) Place

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i. C5. Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park ii. C8. Access­ible path and cycle net­work iii. C9. High-qual­ity vis­it­or experience

1. In 2018 the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) estab­lished the Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund (RTIF) with the aims of improv­ing the vis­it­or exper­i­ence in rur­al parts of Scot­land that were exper­i­en­cing vis­it­or man­age­ment issues as a res­ult of addi­tion­al vis­it­ors and address­ing related pres­sures on loc­al infra­struc­ture and neg­at­ive impacts on com­munit­ies. Fol­low­ing the first two rounds of fund­ing Vis­itScot­land, who man­aged the fund intro­duced a require­ment that for any pro­jects to be sup­por­ted in future they would require to be iden­ti­fied in a Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Devel­op­ment Plan for the area. To sup­port this Vis­itScot­land provided fund­ing to Loc­al Author­it­ies and Nation­al Park Author­it­ies to pro­duce such a plan for their area. The Cairngorms Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Devel­op­ment Plan was pro­duced in 2023 in part to meet that requirement.

Stra­tegic risk management

1. The activ­ity described in this report par­tially assists in mit­ig­at­ing stra­tegic risk no. 11 — ​“Unreal­ist­ic expect­a­tions of what the Park Author­ity and its part­ners can achieve …” as it has helped guide how vis­it­or infra­struc­ture fund­ing is dir­ec­ted and has enabled access to extern­al fund­ing through the Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund. How­ever, the inclu­sion of some pro­jects in the plan that have not pro­ceeded, even where the deliv­ery part­ner would have been a part­ner organ­isa­tion, could intro­duce some repu­ta­tion­al risk.

Implic­a­tions

1. There are no stra­tegic resource implic­a­tions arising dir­ectly from this report as it largely describes past activ­ity. How­ever, the deliv­ery of pro­jects that are not yet com­pleted does have resource implic­a­tions. In some cases, this will involve use of Park Author­ity resources either for dir­ect deliv­ery of a pro­ject or as grant aid to a part­ner organ­isa­tion or busi­ness and these alloc­a­tions are con­sidered as part of the annu­al budget set­ting process.

Form­al Board Paper 3

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Suc­cess measures

1. In broad terms suc­cess in terms of deliv­ery of the plan’s object­ive can be meas­ured through the com­ple­tion of the pro­jects included in the plan. It should how­ever be noted that some pro­pos­als included in the plan were more aspir­a­tion­al rather than firm pro­jects but were included as their inclu­sion could open up the oppor­tun­ity of access­ing Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund sup­port were they to go ahead. Such pro­jects may not there­fore proceed

Deliv­ery of projects

1. Pro­gress in deliv­er­ing pro­jects to date has been mixed with some com­plete and oth­ers pro­gress­ing well but some see­ing no sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress. A small num­ber of pro­jects are no longer anti­cip­ated to pro­ceed in the near future (two — five) due to changed cir­cum­stances. In broad terms pro­gress across the 33 pro­jects indi­vidu­ally defined in the plan can be described as fol­lows: a) Pro­ject com­pleted — 5 b) Pro­ject underway/​some ele­ments delivered — 9 c) Pro­ject being delivered through C2030 pro­gramme — 3 d) No sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress to date — 9 e) Pro­ject unlikely to pro­ceed in the near future. — 4

2. Fur­ther details on the level of pro­gress with each of the 33 pro­jects indi­vidu­ally iden­ti­fied in the plan are giv­en in Annex 1.

3. Reas­ons for the delays to or lack of pro­gress with pro­jects vary but include capa­city either with­in the Park Author­ity or part­ner organ­isa­tions, changed cir­cum­stances since the pro­ject was iden­ti­fied or lack of fund­ing. Fund­ing pres­sures have in part been due to the lim­ited fin­an­cial resources with­in indi­vidu­al organ­isa­tions includ­ing the Park Author­ity but also changes to extern­al fund­ing schemes – for example the Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund was sus­pen­ded for a year in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅, so no fund­ing was avail­able that year.

Oth­er Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Investment

1. In addi­tion to the 33 pro­jects indi­vidu­ally iden­ti­fied, the plan also out­lines how the Park Author­ity will con­tin­ue to invest in oth­er infra­struc­ture such as paths, the gran­ite entry point mark­ers and the three snow roads install­a­tions — ​“Still”, ​“The

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Watch­ers” and ​“Con­nect­ing Con­tours”. Minor repairs, safety improve­ments and land­scap­ing improve­ments at the entry point mark­ers and snow roads install­a­tions are under way and sig­ni­fic­ant invest­ment has gone into a num­ber of path pro­jects in the time since the plan was pro­duced. These include: α) Cinder path and Deeside Way Road cross­ing feas­ib­il­ity study, Bal­later b) Linn of Quoi­ch path improve­ments c) The Charter Chest path, Brae­mar d) Bach­na­gairn path, Glen Clova e) Lag­gan Wolftrax blue trail

Colin Simpson 12 June 2026 colinsimpson@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Form­al Board Paper 3 Annex 1

26 June 2026 Page 5 of 9

Annex 1

Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan Pro­pos­als and progress

* Indic­ates pro­jects fully or part fun­ded by the Park Authority

No.	Loc­a­tion	Pro­ject type	Pri­or­ity	Pro­gress / Com­ments	*
1	Vari­ous	Rail Entry Point Signage	Medi­um	Com­pleted	*
2	Vari­ous	Sig­nage at Main Bus / Coach Entry Points	Medi­um	No pro­gress to date. Some sig­nage expec­ted to be delivered through C2030 pro­jects – ini­tially at new Bal­later trans­port hub.
3	Vari­ous	Act­ive Travel Infrastructure	Var­ies	Pub­lic con­sulta­tion com­plete and designs under way as part of C2030 programme.	*
4	Glen­more	Old Log­ging Way Act­ive Travel Improvements	High	Route study com­pleted June 2024 which iden­ti­fied improve­ments required over mul­tiple years. Ini­tial works under­taken with more pro­grammed for 2026. Fur­ther act­ive travel facil­it­ies fun­ded at Glen­more Vis­it­or Centre through C2030 programme.	*
5	Vari­ous	Pub­lic Trans­port Infrastructure	High	Bal­later Trans­port hub being delivered by NES­TRANS / Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil. Glen­more cor­ridor bus stop improve­ments by High­land Coun­cil. Some fur­ther pro­jects being developed for deliv­ery as part of C2030 programme.
6	Vari­ous	Enhan­cing the EV charge point network	Medi­um	New charge points fun­ded at Glen­more (Reindeer Centre), Nethy Bridge and Car­rbridge (Land­mark) via Nation­al Parks UK spon­sor­ship fund­ing from BMW. Fur­ther work at Glen­more Vis­it­or Centre in pro­gress with Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund (RTIF) funding.	*

Form­al Board Paper 3 Annex 1

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No.	Loc­a­tion	Pro­ject type	Pri­or­ity	Pro­gress / Com­ments	*
7	Cairngorm Moun­tain	Cairngorm Moun­tain park­ing and act­ive travel improvements	High	Car Park improve­ments under­taken by Cairngorm Moun­tain. Study into act­ive travel oppor­tun­it­ies com­pleted but no plans for deliv­ery yet developed. Verge park­ing man­age­ment intro­duced by High­land Council.	*
8	Glen­more	Park­ing man­age­ment & vis­it­or improvements	High	New car park and road­side park­ing man­age­ment sys­tem for the Glen­more area intro­duced by High­land Coun­cil / Forestry and Land Scot­land. Access improve­ments to new toi­lets com­pleted 2024. Tem­por­ary park­ing at Hay­field provided at peak times. Loch Mor­lich beach car park improve­ments com­pleted 2026.	*
9	Ryvoan	Toi­lets and man­age­ment of vis­it­or pressures	Medi­um	Roy­al Soci­ety for the Pro­tec­tion of Birds (RSPB) and Moun­tain Both­ies asso­ci­ation devel­op­ing plans for new toi­let pro­vi­sion. No pro­gress on oth­er aspects.
10	Tul­loch­grue	Park­ing management	Medi­um	Ini­tial options con­sidered at on site meet­ing but no fur­ther pro­gress to date.
11	Loch an Eilean	Act­ive Travel infra­struc­ture and accessibility	High	Path improve­ments around the loch to improve access­ib­il­ity under­taken in 2024 and 2026. Improved pro­mo­tion of act­ive travel options that ini­tially use Old Log­ging Way being con­sidered through C2030 work in Aviemore.	*
12	Badenoch Story­lands Her­it­age sites	Park­ing	Medi­um	No pro­gress to date.
13	Glen Fesh­ie	Park­ing management	Medi­um	No pro­gress to date. Cur­rent usage levels are largely being catered for so improve­ments may not be such a high priority.

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No.	Loc­a­tion	Pro­ject type	Pri­or­ity	Pro­gress / Com­ments	*
14	Uath Lochans	Park­ing management	Medi­um	Minor improve­ments under­taken in spring 2026.
15	Fesh­ie Bridge	Park­ing man­age­ment & trail improvements	Medi­um	No pro­gress to date.
16	Kin­craig Bridge	Park­ing and river access	Medi­um	River access study for this and oth­er loc­a­tions com­mis­sioned and repor­ted in 2025. Dis­cus­sions with estate, com­munity and oth­er part­ners fol­lowed but wider vis­it­or man­age­ment con­cerns have meant pro­gress stalled. Fur­ther dis­cus­sions now arranged for July 2026.	*
17	Aviemore	Park­ing and trans­port facilities	High	Ini­tial options con­sidered by High­land Coun­cil but no fur­ther pro­gress to date. Delays to dualling the adja­cent sec­tion of the A9 mean this is unlikely to pro­ceed in the fore­see­able future.
18	Loch Pity­oul­ish	Park­ing and improved access	Medi­um	Dis­cus­sions on options held with estate and some altern­at­ive park­ing provided by the estate.
19	Loch Vaa	Park­ing and improved access	Medi­um	Improved car park­ing and improved access path to the loch pro­duced by High­land Coun­cil. Landown­er agree­ment still to be reached before con­struc­tion can proceed.
20	Loch Garten	Trail improve­ments & car park connections	High	Trail improve­ments com­pleted along with new chan­ging places toi­let and park­ing man­age­ment improve­ments (tar­geted at motorhomes).	*
21	Grant­own-on-Spey	Park­ing management	Medi­um	No pro­gress to date.

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No.	Loc­a­tion	Pro­ject type	Pri­or­ity	Pro­gress / Com­ments	*
22	Tomin­toul / Glenlivet	Motorhome facil­it­ies	Medi­um	Com­munity Trust developed pro­pos­als but as this was for a lar­ger scale camp­site this is no longer con­sidered to be small scale pub­licly avail­able infra­struc­ture as defined in the plan.
23	Auch­nerr­an	Park­ing & access improvements	Medi­um	Landown­er has developed plans for improve­ments and fund­ing has been offered by the Park Author­ity for 2026⁄27 delivery.	*
24	Cam­bus o’ May	Park­ing man­age­ment & access improvements	High	No pro­gress to date.
25	Bal­later	Coach Park­ing	Medi­um	Fur­ther work under way on feas­ib­il­ity of a site East of Bal­later led by NES­TRANS and will com­ple­ment Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil led Bal­later trans­port hub which would be used as a pas­sen­ger drop-off point. Fur­ther Park Author­ity involve­ment will be as part of C2030 programme.
26	Bal­mor­al	Park­ing man­age­ment & ped­es­tri­an access improvements	High	Traffic man­age­ment under­taken by Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil. New walk­ing route to East­er Bal­mor­al / Bal­mor­al Cairns path developed after sus­pen­sion bridge reopened in 2024. Path improve­ments around Prince Alberts Cairn in 2025.	*
27	Angus Glens	Park­ing and sense of arrival improvements	Medi­um	Park­ing and toi­let improve­ments at Milton of Clova com­pleted by Angus Coun­cil in 2025. Over­flow car park­ing added at Glen Doll by Forestry and Land Scot­land. Longer term plans for estate being developed by Forestry and Land Scot­land fol­low­ing pur­chase of Glen Prosen.	*
28	Spit­tal of Glenshee	Motorhome, toi­let and act­ive travel facilities	Medi­um	No pro­gress to date. Now unlikely to pro­ceed due to changed cir­cum­stances with private owner.

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No.	Loc­a­tion	Pro­ject type	Pri­or­ity	Pro­gress / Com­ments	*
29	Blair Atholl	Park­ing and act­ive travel improvements	Medi­um	Some path improve­ments at Bru­ar and Blair Atholl com­pleted 2025 but no pro­gress with park­ing or act­ive travel routes. Some com­munity led act­ive travel facil­it­ies in Blair Atholl sup­por­ted through C2030 programme.	*
30	Vari­ous	Net­work of motorhome facilities	Medi­um	Fund­ing provided for feas­ib­il­ity work and pro­jects in Bal­later and Brae­mar being fun­ded for 2026⁄27 deliv­ery. Waste dis­pos­al unit and pub­lic toi­let in Grant­own fun­ded in 2024. Feas­ib­il­ity fund­ing for a sim­il­ar pro­ject in Car­rbridge awar­ded in 2026.	*
31	Snow Roads	Sum­mit signage	Medi­um	No pro­gress to date. Pro­ject was an Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil pro­pos­al that may now be on hold due to funding.
32	Glen­more	Meall a’ Bhua­chaille path	Medium/​High	Path works includ­ing test­ing new innov­at­ive approach to cater for bikes fun­ded in 2025. Fund­ing for fur­ther work com­mit­ted in 2026.	*
33	Vari­ous	Core path net­work con­di­tion survey	High	Sur­vey com­pleted and now being used to sup­port decisions on path improve­ment fund­ing. Fur­ther audit of upland paths under­taken by Out­door Access Trust for Scot­land dur­ing 2025⁄26.	*