Paper 5 annex 1 Sustainable tourism action plan

Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan

Annu­al Update ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅

In deliv­er­ing the actions below, all of which will help to deliv­er the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, there are two over­arch­ing priorities:

1. Busi­nesses, vis­it­ors and wider stake­hold­ers should be engaged in the jour­ney to Net Zero and nature recovery.
2. Com­munit­ies and loc­al res­id­ents should be involved in tour­ism decision-mak­ing where it affects them.

NATURE Out­come: A car­bon neg­at­ive and biod­iversity rich Nation­al Park with bet­ter func­tion­ing, bet­ter con­nec­ted and more resi­li­ent ecosystems.

Research shows that the major­ity of our vis­it­ors are attrac­ted by the land­scapes and wild­life that make this such a spe­cial place. We want to deep­en that con­nec­tion with the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, present­ing vis­it­ors with oppor­tun­it­ies to make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion through vis­it­or giv­ing, volun­teer­ing and respons­ible beha­viour choices.

Deliv­er­ing against Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives: • A1 – Net zero • A13 – Spe­cies recov­ery Deliv­er­ing against Scot­land Out­look 2030: • Des­tin­a­tion net zero

ACTIONS	Lead Part­ners
1. Vis­it­or investment	Cairngorms Trust, the Park Author­ity, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship (CBP)
Encour­age vis­it­or invest­ment in the Nation­al Park through vis­it­or-giv­ing, car­bon off­set schemes and oth­er incent­ives, con­nect­ing vis­it­ors with the place through fin­an­cial and emo­tion­al buy-in.
The Cairngorms Trust con­tin­ues to receive vol­un­tary dona­tions from the pub­lic to sup­port pro­jects with­in the Nation­al Park, with dona­tions in 2023⁄24 of £7210.
2. Cli­mate Action Plan	CBP
Devel­op and imple­ment a busi­ness – led Cli­mate Action Plan that engages busi­nesses in oppor­tun­it­ies to lower their car­bon footprint.

CBP have developed a Cli­mate Action Plan which has been shared with busi­nesses. Over 79% of object­ives have been achieved and a revised plan will be cre­ated for future focus. They have also recently recruited an intern who will be pulling togeth­er cir­cu­lar eco­nomy case stud­ies on busi­nesses across Scot­land show­cas­ing best prac­tise and shar­ing them with CBP members.

CBP Food Waste Event ​‘Ele­phant in the Bin’ in March 2024 was well received. Key­note speak­er Mas­ter­chef the Pro­fes­sion­al cham­pi­on Gary Maclean joined Zero Waste Scot­land and Dav­id Ritch­ies and Sons along with 30 busi­ness rep­res­ent­at­ives to dis­cuss redu­cing food waste in the kit­chen, on the plate and in gen­er­al waste bins.

Grow­Biz ran a series of work­shops in 2024 includ­ing ​‘The Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy’, ​‘Redu­cing your Car­bon Foot­print’, ​‘Sus­tain­able Busi­ness Mod­els’ and a Cli­mate Café. In Feb­ru­ary they ran a work­shop aimed at social enter­prises ​‘Embed­ding Sus­tain­able Think­ing”. They are now partnered with the Cli­mate Café and the next couple of events will dis­cuss the import­ance of cli­mate adapt­a­tion for business.

UK Nation­al Parks are cur­rently in dis­cus­sions with Green Tour­ism Ltd around a poten­tial bespoke Nation­al Park accred­it­a­tion scheme.

Deliv­ery of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme con­tin­ues, with busi­ness engage­ment in many of the projects.

1. Tech­no­lo­gic­al solu­tions | Park Author­ity, Vis­itScot­land Invest­ig­ate tech­no­lo­gic­al solu­tions to engage vis­it­ors and nudge them towards respons­ible choices in a way that enhances their exper­i­ence of the destination. | 

The Park Author­ity con­tin­ue to sit on the nation­al digit­al vis­it­or man­age­ment group and have been work­ing with part­ners includ­ing Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Nation­al Park Author­ity and Vis­itScot­land to scope out the devel­op­ment of a vis­it­or wel­come app for Scotland’s nation­al parks. Sub­ject to sourcing appro­pri­ate budget, we anti­cip­ate an app being developed in 2025 and early 2026, once redevel­op­ment pro­jects for the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond web­sites have been completed.

In the mean­time, Park Author­ity con­trac­ted digit­al spa­tial vis­it­or data through Act­ive Xchange as a year’s tri­al to help mon­it­or vis­it­or volume and flows. A fol­low-up tri­al will now take place that focuses on spe­cif­ic sens­it­ive sites.

We also con­tin­ue to invest­ig­ate oth­er digit­al data options in part­ner­ship with oth­er Nation­al Parks.

1. Pre-arrival vis­it­or inform­a­tion | CBP, the Park Author­ity Devel­op a pro­gramme that sup­ports busi­ness engage­ment with cus­tom­ers in advance of their vis­it, includ­ing inform­a­tion about biod­iversity and respons­ible enjoyment. | 

The ​“Love Nature, Love Cairngorms Nation­al Park’ respons­ible enjoy­ment pro­ject was launched to CBP mem­bers in Octo­ber 2023 and since then an ongo­ing pro­gramme of engage­ment with mem­bers has sought to sup­port their under­stand­ing of, engage­ment with and use of the pro­ject assets.

Reg­u­lar posts pro­mot­ing respons­ible enjoy­ment have been shared with the Vis­it­Cairngorms con­sumer audi­ence at rel­ev­ant times using the pro­ject assets, with the Ed Byrne films hav­ing most engagement.

After con­sulta­tion in early 2024, the Park Author­ity board agreed on 28 June 2024 to devel­op a sea­son­al fire man­age­ment byelaw, which would last from 01 April to 30 Septem­ber each year. This decision was based on feed­back from the con­sulta­tion, which sug­ges­ted that the approach should be easy to com­mu­nic­ate, not per­ceived as heavy-handed and cov­er the peri­od with the greatest risk. Fur­ther con­sulta­tion on the byelaw will follow.

Some of the Park Authority’s Tread Lightly mes­saging has been refreshed with updated mes­saging on fires and bar­be­cues and has been trans­lated into 12 dif­fer­ent languages.

The Park Author­ity has adop­ted a more pro­act­ive approach to com­munity engage­ment on social media.

1. Redu­cing spe­cies dis­turb­ance. | The Park Author­ity, NatureScot, Ranger Ser­vices, CBP Devel­op and imple­ment mech­an­isms to reduce dis­turb­ance on key spe­cies and recre­ation­al impacts on high ground. | 

The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject has now fin­ished, hav­ing worked with key com­munit­ies includ­ing vis­it­ors, busi­nesses, dog walk­ers and moun­tain bikers to devel­op action plans that pro­tect caper­cail­lie and oth­er vul­ner­able spe­cies. An over­view of the pro­ject has been pub­lished here.

As part of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, an immers­ive caper­cail­lie lek exper­i­ence was cre­ated for vis­it­ors to Bal­mor­al Castle that tells the story of caper­cail­lie in Scotland

and action being taken to pro­tect this icon­ic spe­cies, includ­ing how people can help it by redu­cing disturbance.

CBP’s cyc­ling map­ping pro­ject has expan­ded to offer new routes in Blair Atholl, Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et and Grant­own-on-Spey. The aim is to encour­age riders to carry on through sens­it­ive areas (routes also avoid­ing area alto­geth­er) without rais­ing aware­ness of nature sens­it­iv­ity which could encour­age dis­turb­ance. The cyc­ling page on vis​it​cairngorms​.com has had 7609 views in the last 12 months.

The intro­duc­tion of Beavers to the Nation­al Park has seen a lot of interest. As part of the pro­ject a new Beaver Trail was way­marked on Rothiemurchus Estate as a focus for vis­it­or interest and to min­im­ise disturbance.

PEOPLE Out­come: A well­being eco­nomy that works for all the people of the Cairngorms. Tour­ism forms a major sec­tor of the loc­al eco­nomy but there are oppor­tun­it­ies to improve the value it adds to the lives of loc­al res­id­ents and com­munit­ies, devel­op­ing and pro­mot­ing hos­pit­al­ity as a career and sup­port­ing com­munit­ies to bene­fit from the vis­it­or economy.

Deliv­er­ing against Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives: • B2 – Well­being eco­nomy • B4 – Skills and train­ing • B5 – Com­munity assets and land • B8 – Gael­ic lan­guage and cul­ture • B10 – A Park for all Deliv­er­ing against Scot­land Out­look 2030: • Our pas­sion­ate people • Our diverse businesses

ACTIONS	Part­ners Lead first
1. Com­munity-led tourism	Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strath­spey, Scotland’s Com­munity Tour­ism Net­work, Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership
Sup­port, encour­age and pro­mote com­munity-led tour­ism enter­prises and devel­op a com­munity tour­ism net­work for the Nation­al Park.

The Park Author­ity has sup­por­ted Aviemore and Glen­more Com­munity Trust to devel­op com­munity assets includ­ing the devel­op­ment of Aviemore ice rink, and the acquis­i­tion of the Glen­more Vis­it­or Centre through the Com­munity Asset Trans­fer process.

SCOTO, Scotland’s com­munity tour­ism net­work, ran a ​‘Press Pause’ work­shop in Brae­mar, bring­ing com­munity and tour­ism interests togeth­er to dis­cuss and agree pri­or­it­ies for the village.

Com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment fund­ing sup­por­ted the refur­bish­ment of toi­lets and waste dis­pos­al in Grant­own under com­munity ownership.

1. Res­id­ent research | The Park Author­ity Mon­it­or res­id­ents’ atti­tudes to tour­ism in their com­munity through reg­u­lar sur­veys and inform­al open meetings. | 

The first in a series of bien­ni­al res­id­ent sur­veys has recently closed, cap­tur­ing atti­tu­din­al data from those who live and work in the Nation­al Park, with almost 1300 com­pleted responses. Ana­lys­is of the res­ults is tak­ing place now and should provide valu­able inform­a­tion on per­cep­tions of vis­it­or man­age­ment, and the exper­i­ence of those work­ing in the tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity sectors.

The Park Author­ity have also been run­ning com­munity engage­ments events includ­ing com­munity drop-in events in Brae­mar, Car­rbridge and Kin­gussie, reach­ing over 200 res­id­ents. Staff also atten­ded a range of oth­er com­munity events includ­ing Tomin­toul High­land Games, New­ton­more High­land Games, Grant­own Show and the Greentown Show.

1. Cul­tur­al her­it­age | The Park Author­ity, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship Strengthen cul­tur­al events through vis­it­or engage­ment with Gael­ic and oth­er lan­guages, music, storytelling and built heritage. | 

The Park Author­ity com­mis­sioned pre­par­at­ory work to explore the poten­tial for estab­lish­ing a Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Net­work for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The con­tract was awar­ded to SCOTO and final report and appen­dices have been pub­lished on the Park Author­ity web­site (link here).

The CBP has been sup­port­ing Badenoch Her­it­age activ­ity around the Badenoch Story­lands pro­ject, attend­ing Badenoch Her­it­age Fest­iv­al and giv­ing recom­mend­a­tions to engage more vis­it­ors and loc­als in pro­gramme pro­mo­tion and devel­op­ment. A clear­er strategy of what the fest­iv­al wants to achieve would be of benefit.

The CBP con­tin­ues to encour­age busi­nesses and com­munit­ies to engage in products and ser­vices that show­case Badenoch the Story­lands — the lib­rary of assets being an invalu­able tool in shar­ing the area.

The Park Authority’s updated Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan was sub­mit­ted in July, and dis­cus­sions with Bord na Gael­ic are continuing.

Fund­ing was provided to Feis Spe to sup­port their work in pro­mot­ing tra­di­tion­al music and lan­guage amongst young people in Badenoch and Strathspey.

1. Fair work and well­being | The Park Author­ity, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship Identi­fy meas­ures and sup­port needed to encour­age fair work prac­tices and a well­being eco­nomy in the tour­ism industry. | 

The Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan was dis­cussed by the Park Author­ity Board in Novem­ber 2024. Fair work first and liv­ing wage con­di­tions are now a require­ment with­in all con­tracts, grants and work issued by the Park Authority.

Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship hos­ted a guest ques­tion from the Park Author­ity in the Q1 2024 Busi­ness Baro­met­er sur­vey to help estab­lish busi­ness atti­tudes to the Real Liv­ing Wage. There will be ongo­ing devel­op­ment of this work in part­ner­ship with CBP for tour­ism sector.

The CBP con­tin­ues to pos­i­tion itself as a point of sup­port for busi­ness own­ers, with busi­ness sup­port ser­vices offered as stand­ard to all CBP mem­bers. The sense of com­munity and the oppor­tun­ity for net­work­ing events, allow­ing busi­ness own­ers to learn, share and devel­op best prac­tice which can feed into their wider team.

A range of well­being ques­tions are included in the Cairngorms Res­id­ent Sur­vey to allow track­ing of pro­gress over time.

1. Employ­ment, train­ing and skills | Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, High­lands and Islands Enter­prise / Scot­tish Enter­prise, Skills Devel­op­ment Scot­land Pro­mote the Cairngorms as an excep­tion­al des­tin­a­tion to work in the hos­pit­al­ity industry and devel­op a train­ing ini­ti­at­ive to strengthen links between loc­al schools / fur­ther and high­er edu­ca­tion organ­isa­tions and the hos­pit­al­ity sector. | 

A rur­al careers event ​“Your Future Here – Careers in the Cairngorms”, sponsored by the Park Author­ity and organ­ised by Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land, took place on 12 Septem­ber 2024 in Aviemore show­cas­ing the vari­ety of careers in the Nation­al Park. 25 loc­al busi­nesses and organ­isa­tions exhib­ited with inter­act­ive stalls, and some delivered inter­act­ive work­shops and demon­stra­tions. 160 seni­or pupils from sev­en High Schools in and around the Nation­al Park atten­ded the event along with over 200 young people who had already left school. Sev­er­al of the employ­ers came along with job oppor­tun­it­ies, some of which were suc­cess­fully filled by a young per­son res­ult­ing from a con­ver­sa­tion had at the event.

The CBP was involved in the ​‘Careers in the Cairngorms’ Steer­ing Group and have invited stu­dents from Kin­gussie High School to attend and sup­port the CBP Annu­al Con­fer­ence in Novem­ber, nur­tur­ing their ambi­tions to work in the loc­al com­munity and make con­nec­tions with­in the busi­ness community.

The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to pro­mote routes into the coun­tryside careers through the Cairngorms Juni­or Ranger Pro­ject and the annu­al recruit­ment of train­ee rangers.

1. Busi­ness engage­ment | The Park Author­ity, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship Review and refresh the ​‘Make it Yours’ busi­ness engage­ment pro­gramme to ensure it meets the needs of our part­ners and informs and inspires front­line staff. | 

The Make it Yours online video con­tin­ues to be pro­moted as an asset for train­ing front-line staff, and a tri­al face-to-face event was run as part of the Brae­mar com­munity engage­ment event. Feed­back from the tri­al was pos­it­ive and the Park Author­ity are assess­ing option for a wider roll-out in 2025.

1. Equal­it­ies, diversity and inclu­sion | The Park Author­ity Encour­age a more diverse range of vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms by address­ing bar­ri­ers iden­ti­fied by under­rep­res­en­ted groups and people from a wide range of socio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds, and sup­port train­ing for front­line hos­pit­al­ity staff to offer a warm wel­come to vis­it­ors of all backgrounds. | 

The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to work in part­ner­ships with a range of organ­isa­tions to take for­ward work in this area, includ­ing Black Pro­fes­sion­als Scot­land, Able2Adventure and LGBT Youth Scotland.

In addi­tion to the con­tinu­ing work of the Park Authority’s Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Pan­el, a Lived Exper­i­ence pan­el is being developed as part of the Cairngorms 2030 Programme.

A work­shop at last year’s CBP Con­fer­ence was ded­ic­ated to pro­mot­ing access­ible tour­ism — encour­aging CBP mem­bers to engage with the 14.6 bil­lion access­ible tour­ism mar­ket whilst improv­ing the vis­it­or experience.

1. Loc­al vis­it­or levy | Loc­al author­it­ies, The Park Authority

Engage with stake­hold­ers to ensure that Scot­tish Government’s pro­pos­als for a loc­al vis­it­or levy meet the needs of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The Vis­it­or Levy (Scot­land) Bill 2024 was passed by Par­lia­ment in May, allow­ing Loc­al Author­it­ies to intro­duce a Vis­it­or Levy Scheme. The legis­la­tion states that Nation­al Parks Author­it­ies must be con­sul­ted when rel­ev­ant Loc­al Author­it­ies are devel­op­ing a scheme.

Vis­itScot­land have pub­lished a com­pre­hens­ive set of guid­ance about scheme implementation.

High­land Coun­cil launched a con­sulta­tion on their pro­pos­al in Novem­ber 2024, and the Park Author­ity and part­ners have been engaged through a vari­ety of events and dis­cus­sions, with a form­al response to the con­sulta­tion due to be dis­cussed by the Park Author­ity Board on 28 March.

Oth­er Loc­al Author­it­ies are at an earli­est stage of con­sid­er­a­tion and the Park Author­ity has reached out and asked to be involved at pro­pos­als develop.

PLACE Out­come: A place that people want to live in, work in and vis­it that works for all. Vis­it­ors con­trib­ute not just eco­nom­ic­ally but socially to life in the Nation­al Park, sup­port­ing invest­ment in infra­struc­ture, busi­nesses and events to help cre­ate thriv­ing com­munit­ies. We want to spread these bene­fits by devel­op­ing and pro­mot­ing assets in com­munit­ies with addi­tion­al vis­it­or capa­city and encour­aging vis­its at tra­di­tion­ally quieter times of year.

Deliv­er­ing against Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives: • C1 – Access to hous­ing • C5 – Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park • C6 – A sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tion • C8 – Access­ible path and cycle net­work • C9 – High-qual­ity vis­it­or exper­i­ence Deliv­er­ing against Scot­land Out­look 2030: • Our thriv­ing places • Our mem­or­able experiences

ACTIONS	Part­ners Lead first
1. Tour­ism infrastructure	The Park Author­ity, VisitScotland
Pro­duce a Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan that defines the pri­or­it­ies for invest­ment in tourism

infra­struc­ture for the next five years and seek addi­tion­al fund­ing for delivery.

The Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan 2023 – 28 has been updated in light of Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects. After a hiatus, the nation­al Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund will again be run­ning in 2025. The Park Authority’s Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture Improve­ment Plan was sup­por­ted through Park Author­ity grant fund­ing of more than £300k in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ for path and park­ing improve­ments at the Linn of Quoi­ch on Mar Lodge Estate, wel­come sig­nage at Glen Tanar Estate, path improve­ments on Atholl Estate, improve­ments to the Glen Clova Loch Brandy car park and improve­ments to the Old Log­ging Way in Glenmore.

The funicu­lar rail­way at Cairngorm Moun­tain resort returned to ser­vice on Thursday 27 Feb­ru­ary. Scotland’s only funicu­lar rail­way has been out of action since August 2023, while an extens­ive pro­gramme of remedi­ation works has been car­ried out, led by con­tract­or Balfour Beatty on behalf of estate own­er High­lands and Islands Enter­prise (HIE). All safety-crit­ic­al mat­ters have now been con­cluded, enabling resort oper­at­or Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Ltd (CMSL) to bring the rail­way back to ser­vice for the remainder of the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ snowsports sea­son. A com­bin­a­tion of the scale and tech­nic­al com­plex­ity of the remedi­ation pro­gramme, plus the chal­lenges of work­ing in an exposed moun­tain envir­on­ment in often harsh weath­er led to the works tak­ing longer than had ini­tially been expected.

1. Vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion | The Park Author­ity, loc­al author­it­ies Mon­it­or the imple­ment­a­tion of the new short-term let licens­ing arrange­ments and the devel­op­ment of meas­ures such as the short-term let con­trol areas and ensure that we main­tain an appro­pri­ate range of accom­mod­a­tion for visitors. | 

Reg­u­lar updates are received from loc­al author­ity part­ners about pro­gress on pro­cessing short-term let licens­ing applic­a­tions. We expect to receive stat­ist­ics in early 2025 that should allow ana­lys­is of the impacts to begin.

1. Tour­ism assets | Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, The Park Author­ity, Vis­itScot­land Pro­mote and invest in tour­ism assets pro­duced by pre­vi­ous place-based ini­ti­at­ives – includ­ing Badenoch: The Story­lands, SnowRoads Scen­ic Route, Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Dark Sky Park, Cat­er­an Eco-museum, the Spey­side Way and Deeside Way. | 

The CBP has a bank of assets to pro­mote Badenoch the Story­lands, the SnowRoads, Dark Sky exper­i­ences and the Spey­side Way. There is a focus on promoting

engage­ment with these products by mem­bers to ensure the bene­fits are max­im­ised by all.

Spey­side Way: There have been ini­tial con­ver­sa­tions with Badenoch Con­nec­tions around lug­gage trans­fers along route, work on con­tent cre­ation to pro­mote the trail to audi­ences, and explor­a­tion of PR oppor­tun­it­ies and influ­en­cer col­lab­or­a­tion in part­ner­ship with Vis­it Moray Spey­side. A film pro­mot­ing the Spey­side Way has been developed show­cas­ing the whole of the 137km route, and the CBP are in con­ver­sa­tion with Vis­it­MoraySpey­side on future pro­mo­tion­al collaborations.

Cat­er­an Eco­mu­seum: The Park Author­ity sup­ports the deliv­ery of The Cat­er­an Ecomuseum’s ​‘Museum of Rap­id Trans­ition’ Pro­gramme (primar­ily fun­ded by Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund) with a grant, enabling the organ­isa­tion to become more resi­li­ent, work towards fin­an­cial sus­tain­ab­il­ity and reduced grant dependency.

The Park Author­ity is sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment and pro­mo­tion of the Dark Sky Park by provid­ing match fund­ing to Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Devel­op­ment Trust to employ a her­it­age ranger who will run dark skies tours and events.

1. Redu­cing sea­son­al­ity | The Park Author­ity and Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship Sup­port devel­op­ment of new products and events to encour­age vis­its at quieter times of year, par­tic­u­larly through the winter months. Com­mis­sion des­tin­a­tion mar­ket­ing cam­paigns to foster growth at tra­di­tion­ally quieter times of year and to encour­age longer stays, with increased value to the loc­al economy. | 

The winter mar­ket­ing plan for the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ sea­son is in pro­gress, aim­ing to pro­mote the Cairngorms as the ori­gin­al winter des­tin­a­tion through a dynam­ic PR cam­paign. This cam­paign tar­gets mul­tiple mar­kets and con­sist­ently high­lights our four key attrac­tions: Badenoch the Story­lands, the SnowRoads, Dark Skies, and the Spey­side Way.

The CBP con­tin­ue to pro­mote the event plan­ners guide, which was developed with busi­nesses and landown­ers to encour­age event organ­isers to max­im­ise the bene­fit of events to loc­al eco­nomy, espe­cially dur­ing the shoulder seasons.

1. Busi­ness sup­port | Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, The Park Author­ity Devel­op oppor­tun­it­ies for busi­nesses to use their loc­a­tion in a Nation­al Park to build sus­tain­able growth through brand­ing, product devel­op­ment and tar­geted marketing. | 

The Park Author­ity con­tin­ue to sup­port busi­nesses through fund­ing and ser­vice-level agree­ments with Grow­biz and the CBP.

Grow­Biz sup­port includes one to one busi­ness sup­port and advice as well ment­or­ing and net­work­ing oppor­tun­it­ies. They will be high­light­ing the import­ance of resi­li­ence and adapt­a­tion to cli­mate change for sus­tain­able busi­nesses in com­mu­nic­a­tions and peer learn­ing events this spring.

The redevel­op­ment of the Cairngorms brand charter scheme, with assets for use by par­ti­cip­at­ing busi­nesses is high­lighted through CBP’s monthly mem­bers news­let­ter and was pro­moted through a brand­ing work­shop at the CBP con­fer­ence in Novem­ber 2024.

1. Part­ner­ship work­ing | The Park Author­ity Build on the part­ner­ship struc­tures and policies developed in response to the Cov­id-19 lock­downs as a mod­el for resi­li­ence against future uncertainty. | 

The Man­aging for Vis­it­ors group con­tin­ues to meet fort­nightly over the sum­mer months, and monthly dur­ing the winter, to share inform­a­tion on vis­it­or pres­sures and co-ordin­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions and messaging.

The Park Author­ity is rep­res­en­ted on all the Nation­al Vis­it­or Man­age­ment sub-groups co-ordin­ated by VisitScotland.

The Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship con­tin­ues to meet three times a year.