How Scotland's best kept secret is braced to become a tourism hotspot

Yet when David Hope-Jones stood in front of a group of businesses and guests and announced the ambitious vision to grow the South of Scotland tourism economy by £1bn and create 6,000 jobs within a decade, he heard an audible gasp.

“There was some cynicism,” he says, recalling the announcement in March. “It is hugely ambitious.

“But I’m a great believer that investment breeds investment and confidence breeds confidence.”

Just a few months on and those shocked gasps are being replaced by more optimistic murmurings.

Rubers Law sits between Hawick and Jedburgh (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

Recently South of Scotland Destination Alliance (SSDA) - the tourism body for the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway – revealed the area had grown its visitor economy by 20% last year alone, increasing it by £150m to £911 million.

It recorded 14% more jobs – 15,652 people now work in tourism across the area.

In a part of the country which travellers tend to whizz through on their way to somewhere else, visitor numbers soared by 26%, to over five million.

If that wasn’t enough to drown out the gasps, along came one of the country’s biggest holiday park operators.

Earlier this month Centre Parcs confirmed its first site in Scotland will be just off the A7 near the Borders town of Hawick.

The Three Brethren, 16th century cairns near Selkirk (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

The move – still in early planning stages - would bring a £350 million investment, with around 700 lodges and assorted attractions in a newly developed forest setting and potential for 1,200 permanent jobs plus an estimated 800 additional construction jobs.

Placed alongside a proposal to create Scotland’s third National Park across a swathe of Galloway landscape – currently the topic of heated debate between those for and against it – the £25 million Destination Tweed project with its plans for 113-mile walking and cycling trail, and the new Kirkpatrick Coast to Coast 250-mile cycling route, and that £1bn dream figure suddenly doesn’t seem so outlandish.

There are other reasons for tourism chiefs to feel optimistic: South of Scotland has been dubbed the “Home of the Bike” with its network of trails and mountain biking at Glentress and Innerleithen.

St Abbs Head sits on the southeastern coast (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

It hosted key events within the 2023 UCI Championships programme which introduced millions of at-home viewers to the area and provided a direct economic impact worth £8m to the region, and the Mountain Biking Innovation & Technology Summit brought 200 delegates to explore what it has to offer.

For visitors who prefer the water, earlier this year saw the launch of the 30 miles Tweed Valley Canoe Trail, there’s talk of a new Galloway national park, established and new walking trails and recent £30million investment in the Schloss Roxburghe Hotel that’s brought an influx of well-heeled visitors.

Mountain biking at Glentress (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance/FLS)

Such is the buzz that respected travel guide Lonely Planet singled out South of Scotland - an area spanning the cliffs of St Abbs Head in the southeast to the vast Solway Firth -  as one its top 30 places in the world to visit in 2023.

It echoed what David and others in the area have been striving to point out: that many make the "big mistake" of driving through on their way elsewhere instead of pausing to take in its attractions.

Those who did stay, it said, could find "breathing room" even in summer and "peaceful corners".

But for others who have watched as once relatively peaceful parts of Scotland became tourist hot spots blighted by camper vans, litter, inconsiderate wild campers and few signs of spending in local shops, there may well be nagging concerns.

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Will the South of Scotland become the nation’s next NC500 style tourist hotspot?

Can it cope with soaring tourist numbers? And what will all this extra tourism really mean for the area?

“It’s not ‘sell cheap and stack high. The whole plan is not just about ‘let’s get lots of people to come here’,” says David, CEO of the SSDA since 2022.

“There are four strands: inspiring more people to come to South of Scotland to experience all we have, investing in quality, supporting businesses and doing it a responsible way.

“What we care about is economic impact on communities here and how many jobs can be created.”

Key, he adds, is encouraging visitors right across the year. And if they happen to be the particularly lucrative North American tourists, all the better.

Schloss Roxburghe Hotel has had a £30m investment (Image: Schloss Roxburghe)

International tourists spend three times that of domestic visitors. Currently, South of Scotland’s market share of those big spenders is just 6% compared to the Scottish national average of 23%.

To boost its numbers, an area that historically saw its share of battles as it strived to keep invaders out, aims to target diaspora who often wrongly assume their hearts and roots lie in the Highlands.

“The North American visitor comes with a sense of belonging and nostalgia; they feel Scottish," he adds.

“The vast majority think they came from the Highlands. The truth is most people who emigrated did so from the Lowlands because they had money and were able to pay their fare.

“We have stories to tell to that high spending American market of emigration from Scotland to New World.

Floors Castle, Kelso (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

“But we have not been telling it right.

“We are developing a 10-year ‘game changing’ plan to tell that story and to get North Americans to come to South of Scotland which, to put it bluntly, is where they probably came from,” he adds.

Likewise, the twisting tale of tartan and tweed also often considered to be the territory of the Highlands and Islands.

“This is the historic centre of textile production, but we are not telling it right,” he adds.

“We want to build a tartan and tweed centre in a discarded mill building where we can tell the story of tartan and tweed.

“Not something glass boxes, but an immersive emotional experience like Johnnie Walker on Princes Street.”

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There is a fine balance to be struck, however, as many living on the NC500 route know only too well. Fodor's Travel 2025 'Go and No Lists' which highlight places to avoid travelling, has included the 516-miles North Coast 500 trail citing over-tourism, over-congested roads and shortfall of campsites and other essential facilities.

Further south, opponents of the proposed Galloway National Park have already been vocal in highlighting concerns over attracting a flood of tourists to an area which is already struggling to find enough staff to work in hospitality, with a lack of affordable accommodation and rural roads.

“A lot of people are worried about mass tourism,” adds David. “But it’s not about increasing visitor numbers and more to do with ensuring those who do come, spend well.

“If we can bring visitors to the places that are struggling it will help everyone.”

The Centre Parcs announcement came out of the blue, he adds. It offers opportunities to encourage its visitors, who often stay within its confines and then leave, to ‘bolt on’ extra days to explore the South of Scotland.

Galloway Forest Park, Raiders Road (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

Alongside permanent jobs will be construction workers with potential spin-off benefits for accommodation providers, restaurants, retailers and throughout the area’s economy.

“In places like Hawick that has third generation unemployment since the mills closed in the 1970s and 1980s, that scale of job creation is same as reopening the textile mills of the Scottish Borders.

“It will be transformative,” he adds.

For campaigners hoping to see an extension to the Borders Railway which currently runs from Edinburgh to Tweedale, Centre Parcs is another reason to lengthen the line through more Borders towns and on to Carlisle.

While there are hopes better job prospects for the next generation of workers, can halt the drift of young people leaving the area in search of work.

“That causes the death of the high street and social economic problems,” David adds.

The South of Scotland has become known as a destination for mountain biking and road cycling (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

“This allows us to fix that gaping hole that the loss of the mass mill extinction left in the Scottish Borders, but we need to spend the next few years being active to make sure get the right skills, right people and right infrastructure.”

Ewan Thomson of Hawick-based luxury cashmere producers Hawico, whose customers include some of the world’s biggest luxury designer brands, sees many positives ahead.

“Newcastle and Edinburgh are only an hour away but people don’t know we are here. It’s like this area is a ‘drive through’ to the rest of the country.

“The level investment going on just now is fantastic. It puts us on the map.

“On the employment side, it will create challenges - it’s difficult enough trying to get people already.

“But I see if from other side. It will probably drive more people to the area, people will see they can buy a house in Hawick that is still relatively affordable, the countryside is beautiful.”

In Hawick, flood defence work which caused disruption in the town is nearly finished, there’s a buzz around the Centre Parcs announcement and hopes it will inspire new investment in roads, an extended railway and other infrastructure.

A Future Hawick group of businesses is brainstorming ideas and pushing for investment.

At Hawico, rooted in the 19th century, there’s ambition to engage with visitors, create new experiences to offer insights into the manufacturing process and tell the story of the Borders mills.

“We see what the whisky people have done, and it’s fantastic. People also want to experience retail.

“We bring people here and they are amazed at what goes into making a sweater.

The River Tweed stretches 97 miles across the Border region (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

“They see the machines going back and forward, all the colours. They often have no idea of the processes.

“Most people think there was manufacturing in this area back in the day but it disappeared.

“Yet we have businesses here making garments for Chanel and Hermes.

“It’s now up to Hawick to make it an interesting place for people to want to come.”

At the other side of the South of Scotland catchment area, Ed Forrest, Director at Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, welcomes the flood of interest in the area, but with conditions.

“Tourism is a real opportunity for us as a UNESCO Biosphere as long as it’s the right kind of tourism,” he says.

“That’s sustainable tourism, that will be good for local communities and good for the environment and local economy.

“We’re keen on tourism that is lead by local communities.

“We’re not seeking mass tourism: that’s not the answer.  But I do think we have a large enough area that can take much more of that small bespoke type of visitor looking for a unique experience.”

Dark skies over Caerlaverock Castle near Dumfries (Image: South of Scotland Destination Alliance)

At SSPA, David, meanwhile, insists he knew nothing of the Centre Parc’s plans when he unveiled the ambitious £1bn tourism target.

“This is an area too long forgotten, unloved and unheard of, and suddenly we are at the front of the queue with large investment,” he adds.

“We have potential here. It’s about creating that ambition, that vision, making that case politically and generating private sector investment.”