Sustainable Tourism & Slow Travel Scotland

Big Sky Campers

Our Commitment to Responsible Tourism

We started our campervan hire company in Scotland because of our love of slow travel, Scotland and, of course, VW campervans. We believe that tourism can be a force for good and are committed to playing our part in making sure Scotland and Scottish communities benefit from the tourism industry. We are very conscious that our business has an environmental impact and want to minimise that impact as much as possible. We hope that our customers will help us to achieve both these aims.

  • We want our business to be a force for good

    As part of the tourism industry in Scotland we are benefitting from tourism, we want others to benefit from our business too

  • We promote responsible tourism to our customers

    We provide information and support to make it easy for our customers to holiday responsibly

  • We encourage Slow Travel in Scotland

    Slow Travel is good for small, local communities so we do everything we can to help our customers get off the beaten track

  • We reduce the impact of our business

    On local communities, Scotland’s natural environment and climate change

  • We support the "It‘s Up to Us" Campaign

    Which is working to save Scotland’s mountain paths for future generations

  • We promote other local, independent businesses

    So that the benefits of Scotland’s tourist industry reach local communities

Scotland Road Trip Map Ben Donich West Coast Argyle

Responsible & Sustainable Tourism

Tourism can be a force for good

Over 3 million international travellers visit Scotland each year, the vast majority to holiday or visit friends and family. Add to this the 13.5 million overnight visits from people living in Britain and you can see the extent to which tourism is an essential part of Scotland’s national life. Tourism contributes over £6 billion to the Scottish economy and employs over 200,000 people. In Edinburgh alone, over 33,000 people are employed in the tourism sector. So it is an incredibly valuable industry, as well as being a growth industry. 

But, not always

The impact of tourism isn’t always a positive one. A recent survey of Scottish residents identified overcrowding, littering, environmental impacts and increased carbon emissions are some of the downsides. 

Some of the islands and more rural areas do not have the infrastructure to support huge numbers of tourists. Even the larger islands can creak a bit under the weight of numbers of summer visitors. The Isle of Skye, for example, has a population of just over 10,000 and attracts over 650,000 visitors each year.

Scottish island hopping holidays Islay

Scotland Welcomes Responsible Tourists

Despite the impact, tourism is overwhelmingly viewed as a force for good by Scottish residents and you will receive a warm welcome from the locals. 

74%

Agree tourism helps conserve Scotland’s built heritage

77%

Agree tourism adds to the vitality of Scotland’s communities

71%

Agree tourism helps connect local communities to other cultures

87%

Agree that tourism helps Scotland’s positive reputation abroad

Please help us be a force for good

As owners of a tourism business, we want to play our part in ensuring tourism is a force for good in Scotland and we hope that you, our customers, will help us by choosing to travel responsibly.

Your choice to travel responsibly will help:

Protect the natural landscape

Boost the local economy and support small businesses

Help conservation efforts and provide funding for local projects and infrastructure

Help protect Scotland’s amazing natural landscape and beauty

Minimise the disruption to local communities’ daily lives

Guide to Responsible Campervanning

Reducing the impact of tourism on local communities

Please choose to:

  • Park responsibly

    Don’t park where you will block access or in passing points on a single track road. 

  • Drive considerately

    Take it slow on smaller roads and through villages, be considerate of other drivers

  • Leave no trace

    Take your litter away with you and dispose of responsibly

  • Avoid the crowds

    Avoid the busier places in the peak tourist season, or travel out of season

  • Camp responsibly

    Camp in a campsite or park up if possible. If not, check if you need landowner permission, don’t disturb anyone and leave no trace of your stay behind

Big Sky Campers:

  • Promotes off season travel

    We encourage people to travel in the off season and publicise events taking place all year round

  • Supports people to travel out of peak season

    We publicise campsites that are open all year round 

  • Promotes responsible campervanning

    We give our customers the information they need to understand what they need to do

  • Makes sure customers know about the Scottish Outdoor Access Code

    We promote the Scottish Outdoor Access Code to our customers and carry copies of it in our vans

  • Makes it easy for our customers to take their litter with them

    We provide bin bags and recycling bags in our vans 

Encouraging Slow Travel in Scotland

What is Slow Travel?

Scottish island hopping slow travel scotland

One of the key ways we can contribute to sustainable tourism in Scotland is by promoting slow travel in Scotland. Slow travel really is exactly what campervanning is about. It is an approach to travel that emphasises taking your time, connecting to local people, places and culture. The beauty of campervanning is that you don’t have to rush from place to place, you can take your time, wander where you will and travel off the beaten track.

Slow Travel in Scotland helps local communities benefit from tourism

Please choose to:

  • Support small local shops by choosing to shop with them rather than supermarkets
  • Chose locally produced, seasonal food wherever possible
  • Wander off the beaten track and explore the places that often get missed by the tours
  • Take your time and stay longer, get to know our culture and heritage

Big Sky Campers:

  • Puts road trip routes on our website that highlight less well travelled destinations
  • Promotes local events & independent businesses through our blog posts and travel guides
  • Ask our customers to recommend local businesses
  • Devise personalised routes for customers to take them to off the tourist trail

Save Scotland’s Mountain Paths

Slow Travel Scotland campaign to protect mountain paths

It’s Up to Us

Many of Scotland’s mountain paths have eroded badly. People no longer take the path routes because of the risk of landslides. This means that there is more of an impact on the landscape when people walk these routes. Big Sky Campers is proud to support the campaign “It’s Up To Us”. This project run by the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland and Mountaineering Scotland will rebuild the paths to support the landscape and surrounding biodiversity. We would love it if any of our customers who have enjoyed Scotland’s wonderful natural landscape would also consider supporting this work.

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Reducing our environmental impact

Slow Travel Scotland in VW Betty

We recognise our business has an environmental impact and try to minimise this wherever we can. Nevertheless, we have to accept that our customers will want to cover as much of Scotland as they can during their holiday. With this in mind we make sure that our campervans are well maintained and regularly serviced to be as fuel efficient as possible. All our campervans are ULEZ compliant. Our campervans use VW Blue Motion Technology to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. The vans can reach up to 44 miles per gallon.  The average CO2 emissions are 159g/km.  

Other ways we reduce our impact on the environment

  • We encourage our customers NOT to buy water in plastic bottles

    Scottish water is safe to drink and each van leaves with a full water tank and a water carrier that can be used to refill water bottles and the tank

  • We supply customers with things to help them cut down on energy use

    We supply solar showers, hot water bottles, warm bedding, blankets and extra sets of bedding free of charge

  • We supply environmentally friendly products

    We supply washable cloths and washing up liquid and cleaning products which are all refilled regularly with eco friendly products

  • Help our customers to leave no trace

    We supply shovels and bin bags so those wild camping can do so without leaving a trace

  • Encourage using public transport to reach us

    We support our customers to use public transport to reach our HQ by providing a collection service from the bus and train station

  • Our premises use zero fossil fuels

    Our warehouse does not use hot water or lighting and there is no heating. Electricity supply is 100% from renewable sources.

  • We encourage the use of bikes

    We supply bike racks for free to encourage our customers to explore on two wheels as well as 4

  • Cutting down on plastic use

    We provide a tote shopping bag in the van so customers don’t use plastic bags

  • We support the work of the Scottish Outdoor Access Trust to restore mountain paths and protect biodiversity

Looking to the Future

Big Sky Campers is conscious that the nature of our business has an environmental impact. We are always looking at ways that we can minimise that impact and contribute to more sustainable travel. We aim to add fully electric campervans to our fleet as soon as this would be practical and positive for our customers’ experience. At the moment there are no electric vehicles on the market that are suitable. And whilst Scotland has more charging points per capita than any other part of the UK, there are often long distances between charging points in the rural areas which our customers want to visit. We need to ensure customers do not get stuck without any ‘charge’ and don’t feel that there is the necessary infrastructure in place yet to ensure this. 

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+44 (0)7823 786445

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