Tourist Strategy Launched

11 September 2006

A new strategy launched on 19 August at the Appin Agricultural Show uses the natural heritage to help attract tourists to Appin and the Isle of Lismore.

The result of months of hard work, “Explore Appin and Lismore" has been funded by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), which has worked closely with the communities of Lismore and Appin to put the document together. It incorporates a series of proposed projects, put forward by local people, which will help underpin the rural economy. Projects include joint marketing of the area to attract more income from tourism and improvements to the local infrastructure such as footpaths.

It is hoped that this co-ordinated approach, often required when applying for grant aid, will make it easier to secure funding for the projects.

Stephen Austin of SNH said: "This strategy is the result of a fantastic joint effort between Comann Eachdraidh Lios Mor, Appin Community Council, Lismore Community Council and Appin Historic Society. All the hard work that the volunteers in the community groups and councils have put in over the last year has successfully laid the foundation stone, by way of the strategy, for a whole range of projects.

“We hope it will, in the years to come, provide a means of attracting more visitors to this beautiful part of the country to appreciate and enjoy the natural heritage and bring money into the local rural economy.”

Some views of the Appin Show