Lead Partner: Aviemore and the Cairngorms Destination Management Limited Trust (ACDMT)
Description
The Aviemore and the Cairngorms Destination Management Organisation (ACDMO) Limited is Scotland’s first private-sector led destination not-for-profit management organisation whose activities are directed towards community benefits from tourism. The Company has evolved with the support of public sector and community interest groups. It is led by a group of Directors from local businesses driven by their corporate social responsibility. Destination management is recognised by the World Tourism Organisation as being a key to sustainable tourism development at the destination level. 
An international benchmarking study in 2005 examined 15 world-class destinations in six countries and highlighted that in each a strong destination management organisation (DMO) provided the lead and coordination to develop tourism.
The community, together with the tourism operators in Aviemore and the Cairngorms, having witnessed the success of collaborating to market and promote the destination, recognised the importance of establishing a DMO. Consequently, over the past 18 months all the key stakeholders in the private and pubic sectors have been working towards this objective.
One of the proposals is to introduce schemes to generate net additional income from visitors to reinvest in community and environmental projects. Such schemes are not uncommon in tourism destinations in other parts of the world but this would be the first in Scotland and one of the most ambitious in the UK. Obtaining money from tourists on a voluntary basis to help maintain local community services and facilities is not a new idea. For many years donation boxes and honesty boxes have been used at rural car parks, in churches and at historic sites. 
These have relied upon the visitor making a conscious decision to contribute either a suggested sum or an unspecified amount. In recent years there has been a growing body of evidence that tourists are willing to pay ‘extra’ for good causes and projects that have a direct, positive, impact upon the environment or community where they are staying or visiting. There is a successful scheme working in the Lake District for example. ACDM Ltd has now established a Trust to take these ideas forward.
It is aimed that this action research programme will provide fully transferable models of (a) community involvement with a private sector led destination management organisation with (b) a model for a Voluntary Payback Initiative that enables community benefits identified by the community and informed by market research.
Contact Details
Alan RankinChief ExecutiveAviemore and the Cairngorms - Scotland's Natural AdventureMorlich House17 The SquareGrantown on SpeyPH26 3GHT: 01479 873737m:07785 722936Website: www.visitaviemore.com