WHERE once people just went on holiday and didn’t think too much about the consequences of their location, holidaymakers are now becoming more environmentally conscientious.
Changes in society and consumer behaviour have resulted in new travel attitudes. According to VisitScotland, 71% of travellers are determined to put more effort into travelling sustainably. The climate crisis, Brexit, and CoviD-19 all contribute to this sizeable shift in behaviour.
Ecotourism is defined by the International Ecotourism Society as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education".
Popular buzzwords such as responsible tourism and sustainable travel are increasingly integrated into the holiday vocabulary. Recently, two UK specialist travel companies Coolstays and Sawdays have asked carbon footprint and environmental questions of owners following the UK-wide Green Tourism scheme started in 2008. Not to be outdone, the Michelin Guide has introduced a new green star for environmentally friendly restaurants with an emphasis on those serving locally sourced food.
Tourism is the cornerstone of Scotland’s economy, contributing more than £4 billion. In 2017, Rough Guide readers voted Scotland "the most welcoming country in the world" and more recently Lonely Planet chose southern Scotland as a "Best in Travel Destination" for 2023 to broaden tourism spending.
According to NatureScot, spending on nature-based tourism contributes nearly 40% of all tourism spending and supports more than 40,000 full-time jobs. However, the eco part of tourism needs to be integrated with the profitability of the business. Sustainability cannot be more important than profit alone, but rather its partner.
Sustainability and ecotourism can mean many things and can even, surprisingly, be extremely luxurious. It’s not just about using eco toilet cleaner. Off-grid options include super luxe Canadian handcrafted log cabins at Eagle Brae and, at a smaller scale, the Inverlonan bothies on Scotland’s west coast.
The Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown-on-Spey offers week-long guided wildlife tours with Nick Baker, a naturalist and television presenter, whilst the Glen Dye Cabins in Aberdeenshire and Guardswell Farm in Perthshire offer foraging and local foodie experiences. Glenfeshie estate is home to Wildland Cottages, a wonderful Scottish–Scandinavian heritage collection. Owner Anders Poulsen’s ambition is “to allow forests to regenerate, peatland to flourish, and wildlife to return. A richer, more balanced eco-system will mean a healthier landscape for the communities around us.”
Low environmental impact buildings such as Croft103 holiday cottages in Durness or the Treehouses at Lanrick are built prioritising the material design of the build itself, known as a fabric-first approach. This aims to, for example, provide plenty of insulation and optimize glazing to reduce service costs such as heating (more important than ever right now in the current energy crisis) rather than relying on energy-saving products or renewable technologies which can be expensive and may or may not be used efficiently by occupants.
For the 71% of travellers keen to pursue eco-holidays this year, Scotland surely is the place to go.
Victoria Bruce Winkler is owner of Brucefield Estate
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here