The report on "Tourism and the Scottish Environment" recommended the establishment of a Strategic Tourism Management Initiative for Scotland as a means of improving the quality of provision for visitors whilst maintaining a quality environment. The key mechanism for the implementation of the Tourism Management Initiative was the site-based Tourism Management Programmes, primarily consisting of locally-based bodies working in conjunction with the appropriate national bodies.
The Trossachs Trail was created as a marketing device but also, in product development terms, as a package of environmental improvements which would attract funding from the local authorities and the Local Enterprise Company. It was then accepted as one of the ten pilot projects which were designated to develop the concept of Tourism Management Programmes.
A study on the future development of the Trail identified the need to commit some funding. to the collection of information on visitors to the area and users of the facilities as part of a systematic visitor monitoring programme. Such a programme would have the following aim:
"to assess and keep under review the impact of the strategy on the Trossachs core, including the success of tourism development and promotion and visitor and countryside management initiatives"
One of the primary recommendations in relation to visitor monitoring was the establishment of a visitor survey to provide baseline information on the level of visitor activity in the Trossachs. As with most areas of Scotland, the volume of information on the local visitor market is limited and, when available, the quality of such information can be variable.
The Partners involved in the Tourism Management Programme therefore commissioned a survey of visitors to the Trossachs which had the following objectives:
to assess the scale of the visitor market and its characteristics, including levels of expenditure;
to assess the distribution of visits throughout the season and the area;
to obtain the views of visitors about the area and its facilities and services; and
to create a survey framework which can be easily repeated in the medium to long term.
System Three Scotland were commissioned to undertake this survey. In the following chapters we outline the methodology employed, present the main findings to emerge from the analysis of the survey data and highlight some conclusions.