Ancestral Tourism
Cameron remains deeply involved in ancestral tourism activities.
Work on a book Rooted in Scotland was completed, with the manuscript submitted to the publisher, Luath Press www.luath.co.uk in late 2006 and the book due to be published in April 2007. Inevitably, researching and writing the book took up a lot of time and we hope the book is well received.
We prepared a number of new clan itineraries for the AncestralScotland web site and updated some of the other content on the site in advance of a redevelopment of www.ancestralscotland.com scheduled for early in 2007. In addition we wrote the text of an AncestralScotland promotional booklet and updated the ancestral tourism material included in VisitScotland’s 2007 Main Guide.
Finally for VisitScotland we prepared a short report on the Ulster Scots. These are people who emigrated from Scotland to Ulster and then migrated onwards to the US where they became known as the ‘Scotch Irish’.
For Angus Council and its partners we facilitated an Angus and Dundee Roots Festival workshop which attracted some 50 or so attendees. This is an exciting development and we very much hope the project partners proceed with the Festival.
The initial planning work for Travel Manitoba/Destination Winnipeg focused on a Year of Homecomings was completed.
In Orkney, Cameron was the founding chairman of the Orkney Homecoming, the aim of which is to invite North Americans of Orcadian ancestry back to their ancestral homeland for a series of events in May 2007. This hopes to repeat the success of the 1999 Orkney Homecoming.
The Virtual Emigration Museum project, a partnership between the Scottish Museums Council, National Museums of Scotland, the National Archive of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland continued to seek funding from the Scottish Executive and others to move forwards. With the initial scoping work complete our role has become one of lobbying in support of the project.
Other Consulting Projects
Sustainable development is a topic of increasing importance across all walks of life and we are delighted to be assisting a local Orkney group participating in the trans-national CREST (Creating Sustainable Tourism Destinations) project. We have facilitated two meetings of the group so far and will be assisting with the development and implementation of a sustainable tourism pledge and associated tests.
Cameron gave a presentation at the launch of the Tourism Heritage and Technology Challenge Fund in Dingwall, emphasising the need for closer working between the technology, heritage, tourism and creative industries.
Finally we remain involved in Northern Epic Ltd, a project spanning heritage and tourism.