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Under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, it is the duty of NatureScot and local authorities and National Park Authorities to publicise the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. The Scottish Government’s public agencies are running promotional campaigns, such as the Sustainable and Responsible Tourism in Scotland initiative (VisitScotland) or the Responsible Access campaign (Cairngorms National Park). These campaigns promote responsible enjoyment of the countryside, as part of the wider national visitor management strategy co-ordinated by VisitScotland.

Figures show there has been widespread public engagement with these campaigns over the spring and summer period. For example, 12.8 million impressions across social media have been received by NatureScot since March 2021.

£2.75 million has been allocated by Scottish Ministers this year for the Better Places Green Recovery Fund, administered by NatureScot, which partly provides for additional seasonal rangers to promote responsible behaviour in line with the access code. We are also providing our National Parks with an extra £3.6 million in 2021 which will also include additional support for seasonal rangers.

With specific regard to water safety, which is an important issue in urban as well as rural areas, the Scottish Government works closely with Water Safety Scotland and other key partners to implement and support initiatives that can help raise awareness of the hazards around water and reduce deaths from accidental drowning. They run a series of campaigns annually, including ‘Drowning Prevention Week’, ‘Don’t Drink and Drown’ and ‘Inflatable Safety’. The Scottish Government also provides annual grant funding to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to deliver its annual home and water safety programme, which includes providing a secretariat to Water Safety Scotland.

Messaging is performed by a number of public agencies in a number of formats, and cumulative figures on spend are not available.

The Scottish Government and VisitScotland are in close contact with Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park (LLTNPA) and other partners on a regular basis. Working with LLTNP, VisitScotland has led a responsible tourism marketing campaign and developed a national action plan for visitor management to help meet the challenges of the 2021 season while international travel has remained restricted.

The LLTNPA has worked in collaboration with other public bodies to address and manage visitor pressures through the National Park Safe Recovery Action Group. It’s Visitor Management Plans - Respect Protect Enjoy -Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park (lochlomond-trossachs.org) sets out the extensive range of measures and resources put in place for the 2021 season. The partners continue to meet every Monday to discuss emerging issues, solutions and opportunities. It is recognised that some challenges will require longer term solutions.

Localised visitor management groups have also been established this summer. Meetings have been held to ensure stakeholders (communities, land managers, businesses and recreation groups) are informed on the partnership work to manage visitor pressures. Recordings of each session have been published online on our Advice for Communities webpage. These sessions have included signposting to funding.

Funding of £475,000 has been provided by the Scottish Government over the last two years to the National Park to meet the costs associated with additional visitor management pressures following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. In addition to this a further £425,000 has been allocated to mitigate the wider impact of the pandemic on businesses and local communities. This funding has supported increased seasonal staff (such as rangers), toilet provision and signage among other things.

The Scottish Government also increased in the Park Authority’s Capital budget by £540,000 for 2021-22 to deliver visitor infrastructure improvements and develop a capital investment plan to better support visitor management. This also enabled the organisation to establish a £250,000 Green Recovery Fund.

https://www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/park-authority/how-we-can-help/funding-grants/national-park-grant-scheme/

LLTNPA has received £100k from Transport Scotland towards a Sustainable Visitor Transport Co-ordination Project and a parallel Shuttle Bus Pilot in 2022 which focuses on visitor hot spots.