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Our Green Tourism Award
Our Green Tourism Award.
Scotland Travel Blog – 24th February 2021
Discovering off the beaten track places is one of the best things about our tours and is one of the main reasons we were recently awarded a top (Gold) Green Tourism Award from Green Tourism UK. We are so happy to be recognised for the work we do towards sustainable tourism and our support of local businesses and communities, through our brand – Local Flavours with James Campbell Tours. Green tourism | Eco tourism Scotland – James Campbell Tours We are responsible travellers and have introduced some new measures to help the environment along the way.
We always include hidden gems in our tour itineraries, whether it’s an undiscovered castle or an amazing local resteraunts, and it is this element of surprise that provides a lasting memory for our guests. We know so many amazing places, whether it is in the city or out in the countryside, which we know you will love. Our tours of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales are designed to include the classic sights which are well documented in on-line guides, in magazines, travel guides and books. We love those places too, and we bring them to life as we guide you through our built heritage, recounting stories from the past. Across Scotland, the UK and Ireland, we have an abundance of castles with hundreds of years of history, we also have ancient monuments where there are thousands of years of history. On our tours, we also look at the geological activity of Scotland, the UK and Ireland and this covers millions of years.
Two small, but equally important things are, we provide all our guests with re-usable bags for their gift shopping. You are welcome to take these Canvas Tote Bags home with you for re-use, or you can leave them with us where we will clean them ready for use for the next guest. We supply you with your own water bottle which you can fill up each day with lovely fresh Scottish water at your accommodation. Introducing these little measures is a simple but effective way of setting the tone for what we believe in. Of course, we have an eco-friendly theme running right through our business and it is our commitment to finding, and working with, old and new artisan businesses and producers which we are most proud of. Another aspect of our green values is our support and membership of organisations such as The National Trust for Scotland, The John Muir Trust and The Scottish Wildlife Trust.
An interesting fact about Scotland is that the landscape here was created when it lay south of the equator and we were part of a super continent known as Laurentia, which is modern day North America. The Atlantic Ocean separated us! Will we meet again? Who knows, but the answer may come in a few hundred million years! England, on the other hand was part of a continent known as Amazonia, we all know where that is. So, it seems, eventually that Scotland and England were destined to meet. Oh, how that history unfolded!
When we are touring the lands of Torridon and North West Sutherland in Scotland, we can physically see the lines of geology in the rocks on the side of mountains, which is a most astonishing sight. The rock on the Western Isles, or as we call them, The Outer Hebrides is some of the oldest rock in the world – The Lewis Gneiss. It is where this island takes its name. Sights like these put me in awe of our planet earth. What an amazing place we live in and we must do our best to protect it.
We have always explored off the beaten track and local places, and so to replicate the care we take of the environment when out touring to our daily business procedures was the next logical step. Our office is an environmentally friendly place. We monitor our energy and water levels and use low energy lighting. The cleaning products we use are all eco-friendly and we keep waste to a minimum. We re-cycle, paper, cardboard, plastic, tins and other products. Our office is mostly paper free, and we are switching our printed material to re-cycled card.
Our vehicles are equipped with AdBlue technology and we always drive our tours at the correct speed limits. We clean our cars with the best environmentally friendly car cleaning products and our cars are regularly serviced and checked for their emissions output.
Local Flavours.
When we started our touring business the first thing we thought about (and maybe we did this for too long) was, what should it be called? Putting Scotland in the name was the obvious choice but we also love Ireland, England and Wales too. Using the word UK wasn’t an option either because Ireland is not in the UK, and Scotland could maybe become independent in the not-too-distant future. After a consultation process, we thought let’s put my name in the business…
The name of the business has since developed into, Local Flavours with James Campbell Tours, and this is to promote our ethos of local. We will take you to places where locals know and love. We take you to the places where you will get an authentic flavour, whether it is an historical monument or place, no matter where it is. Of course, some of these places are well known, such as Stirling Castle, The Giants Causeway etc, they should be visited, and we do. However, there are many more amazing places that do get overlooked and it is those places we love. No matter where you are visiting in the world, if you are touring a place with very few or no other tourists, it will always hold a special place in your heart. Our tours will let you into our secrets and that’s when you’ll feel like kin.
Local Flavours is also about the beautiful countryside and stunning views you might not know about. To be fair, when it come to iconic viewpoints which are off the beaten track, there are still many more to be discovered – the world, in fact Scotland is a big place! We keep adding to our lists of enjoyable views away from a crowded spot, this also helps with our direct impact on the environment. Weather also impacts how a view looks, and you can be assured that because of our changing weather patterns the same views can change literally every 10 minutes! We have a saying in Scotland, you’ll experience every season in one day!
Do you like the best food and drink? Of course, you do! So, do we. We only use the best restaurants, pubs, cafes and bistros when on our tours, and we are constantly keeping up to date with the food scene across our destinations, so we take you to, or can recommend the best places. We also want to support local food and drink producers; we work hand in hand with them and we are making new contacts all the time.
Our environmental journey simply started with taking guests to off the beaten path gems. Now our business has everything local and the environment is at the heart of everything. We feel we have only just begun…
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