Putting all our islands on the map!
The idea for a Scottish Island Passport was inspired by successful projects in Denmark, Holland and Ireland. The Scottish version of the project aims to cover all of Scotland’s inhabited islands, inspiring visitors to consider islands they might never have thought of visiting by promoting the unique aspects of each – from the landscape and wildlife to the cultural heritage and unique small island businesses – and is particularly focussed on promoting less well known islands and travel outwith peak times.
Outputs of the project will include a physical passport that can be ‘stamped’ when someone visits an island, an app-based passport to help users plan their trip and explore, and a website and marketing campaign to promote these.
The project has a focus on promoting sustainable tourism, recognising that this means different things to different island communities. The job-share Project Managers, Kirsten Gow and Sarah Compton-Bishop, are based on the Isle of Jura and have taken a flexible approach to the roll out of the project in the face of the global pandemic, listening to the wishes of island communities, as well as official advice, to gauge when communities on each island will be happy to encourage visitors to return, and how the project can help aid the recovery of the tourism sector.
SIF is a member of the project steering group and would encourage all our members to get involved. The project has been funded by LEADER, Scottish Government, HITRANS and ZETRANS until April 2021 but Kirsten and Sarah are already working on plans to secure the long term future of the project.
The project’s holding website is currently available at www.islands.scot and you can also follow the project on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where there is a regular ‘island of the week’ feature celebrating the joy of our islands throughout 2020. To find our more, or sign up to our monthly project newsletter please get in touch with Kirsten and Sarah passport@hitrans.org.uk