Promoting sustainable tourism through community co-creation

The Goal

Visit Scotland, XpoNorth and High Life Highland wanted to encourage more sustainable tourism, creating better engagement between tourists and local communities in the region. The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are being loved to death: overcrowded, too busy and the lack of proper engagement with residents is leading to ill-will and resentment.

The Solution 

The Smartify team was brought in to record hundreds of hours of interviews, in-situ, with the widest possible range of communities throughout the region.  

These records are now used for a huge range of digital experiences: from long-form podcasts to short sonic postcards, audio guides, walking and driving trails.

Working with High Life Highland, Smartify traveled across the region, meeting as many different communities as possible.  

• The whole project was based on co-creation, with no preconceived agenda.  
• We transcribed the interviews, and used the transcriptions via word clouds to determine the themes and stories for each region.

The Results

All partners involved with this project were delighted with the results of the project, and three years on, we continue our partnership.

We have measured:

• Deeper engagement that envisaged and wider participation in official tourism activities, more favourable reception from communities.  
• Incentives to engage with communities in the local area.
• Nudges to explore less visited but equally beautiful regions, and to do so out of high season.