Flowing Forward: Shaping Sustainable Tourism for The Flow Country

Since The Flow Country World Heritage Site (WHS)’s inscription in July 2024, The Flow Country Partnership has been looking to explore the collaborative opportunities between the WHS and local businesses to encourage responsible and sustainable tourism in and around Caithness and Sutherland. With that in mind, we are excited to invite you to Flowing Forward: Shaping Sustainable Tourism for the Flow Country on the 12th of November 2025 in the Assembly Rooms, Wick, and on the 13th of November 2025 in Armadale Village Hall, Armadale.

These events aim to bring together businesses, tourism providers, stakeholders, policy makers and community members to explore the practical ways local businesses and enterprises can benefit from collaboration with the WHS. We have invited a range of speakers from local businesses and other designated sites to share their experiences and ideas on embracing links with the WHS which will, in turn, collectively help promote the local area. One of our goals for this event is to establish a small working group that will focus on developing a sustainable marketing and tourism strategy and develop a brand for the WHS, that can be utilised by businesses in and around the Flow Country.

The events will take the form of a morning of presentations and discussion, followed by a breakout session to further explore the ideas around ways the WHS can benefit local tourism. Lunch will be provided, followed by a tour of some of the Flow Country sites in the afternoon (weather depending).

Wednesday 12 November – Assembly Rooms, Wick

9.30 Registration, Tea & Coffee

10.00 Welcome – Frances Gunn, Chair, The Flow Country WHS Steering Group

10.15 An introduction to The Flow Country WHS – Sarah Lashley, WHS Co-ordinator

10.30 Best Practice in WHS Tourism – TBC

11.00 Sustainable Tourism in a UNESCO Landscape – Wester Ross Biosphere

11.30 Local tourism marketing and opportunities arising from The Flow Country WHS – Jason

Watts, Forse of Nature, Latheron

12.00 Workshop – identifying the Flow Country’s unique tourism assets

12.45 Feedback and closing remarks from morning session, next steps

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Tour of Flow Country attractions (Caithness)

16:00 Closing remarks from afternoon session, return to Assembly Rooms car park.

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Host or Publisher The Flow Country Partnership