By Kat Brogan, Managing Director, Mercat Tours | B Corp | Fair Work Employer | Fair Tax Accredited | Better Business Act Signatory | Community Tourism UK Declaration Signatory
Let me be direct: tourism is the most inclusive, most inspiring sector to have the good fortune to be a part of, in any capacity. I’ve held this belief since I stepped up as MD of Mercat Tours, succeeding my dad, Des, who founded our award-winning family business company in 1985. I believe it even more firmly now, in 2026.
But belief alone doesn’t build. You need a map.
Right now, Scottish tourism is at an inflection point. The pressures are real, overtourism headlines from Barcelona to Bali, a cost-of-living crisis squeezing both visitors and teams, and a political landscape that’s frankly unsettling for international travel confidence. I won’t minimise these realities. What concerns me, though, is how quickly our industry defaults to survival mode and a defensive crouch when it should be leaning hard into transformation, using the many examples which demonstrate the power tourism has to preserve heritage, celebrate culture, support jobs, attract investment whilst enhancing the life of locals and visitors, landscapes and wildlife alike.
Experience from operating a business that’s B Corp certified, Living Hours accredited, and Fair Tax marked convinces me that doing good business is good business. Not a strategy. Not a PR exercise. If ethics are the foundations of your enterprise then it will shine through your team culture and speak through your leader’s voice. In turn, this attracts like-minded team-members, visitors and business partners who believe and ACT in creating an inter-dependent ecosystem where people, place and planet thrive together, long into a sustainable future for all. Tourism has the power to create diverse, dynamic teams, support living wage jobs, and reconnect communities with the stories of their own city. That’s not idealism — that’s tourism when it cares, nurturing the destination it is proud to serve as a project in regeneration.
Where does the optimism come from? Three places.
A Visitor Levy is a genuine turning point. Edinburgh’s first spend from the Visitor Levy has been approved in 2026. Done well, this is the mechanism that finally aligns the interests of visitors, residents, and businesses. It’s a signal that tourism revenue can flow back into the communities that make destinations worth visiting in the first place. We need to hold decision-makers to account on its results whilst being ambitious with its potential, co-designing to realise that future with the local communities.
Quality is winning. Travellers, particularly post-pandemic, are choosing depth over volume. Expert-led storytelling, authentic cultural encounters, meaningful connection with place. We’ve seen it at Mercat. Scotland’s outstanding offer of history, landscapes, hospitality and culture is genuinely world-class when its story is told well. Positioning value for time and money can secure greater benefits to communities and businesses – it is time tell the story, showing that value as a point of difference and pride. The race to the bottom on price is for someone else’s business model.
Young people are the sector’s superpower. Every time we work with school students through mentoring or school outreach visits, and they realise this is their story too and one they are excited to own and tell, then I know the future is in safe hands. We need to meet young people with worthy careers, not precarious contracts. Fair Work isn’t a checkbox — it’s how you build a proud team that cares for each other and in giving visitors the warmest welcome.
Scotland’s tourism future isn’t just bright. It’s full of care, purpose and impact. And that makes all the difference.
Kat Brogan is MD of Mercat Tours, Edinburgh. The multi award-winning business is Scotland’s largest walking tour company, B Corp certified and 40 years young.
Written by: K Brogan, 25 May 2026