The world’s first ever UNESCO trail, bringing together some of Scotland’s most iconic, diverse and culturally significant sites, was launched yesterday
13 Scottish place-based designations are included in the digital trail that covers World Heritage Sites, biosphere reserves and “creative cities”. The dedicated digital trail aims to take visitors on a cultural journey across the country experiencing everything from music and history to science, design and literature to nature.
UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – “seeks to build peace through international cooperation in education, the sciences and culture.”
The three “creative cities” – Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh represent music, design, and literature respectively. Glasgow is home to a large and vibrant music scenes and in 2008 was named the first-ever UNESCO City of Music.
Designed specifically to support ambitions to make Scotland a world-leading responsible tourism destination, Scotland’s UNESCO Trail encourages visitors to stay longer, visit all year round, make sustainable travel choices, explore more widely, and in turn, contribute to the sustainable quality of life of those communities surrounding the designated sites.
Scotland is the first nation in the world to create a UNESCO trail, which has been developed through a unique partnership between VisitScotland, the Scottish Government, the UK National Commission for UNESCO, Historic Environment Scotland, NatureScot, the National Trust for Scotland, as well as Scotland’s 13 UNESCO designations, which include biospheres, global geoparks, creative cities and world heritage sites. The project has received £360,000 funding from the Scottish Government to support the strategy for the sustainable recovery of Scottish tourism.
The digital trail is available at www.visitscotland.com/unesco-trail
