Agritourism Futures Scholarship Programme 2025
With valuable support from Scottish Rural Network Scottish Agritourism has 20 places to offer to young people with an interest in agritourism to attend three days of development, including one day at the Scottish Agritourism conference on the 27th November 2025 and a two day Edinburgh based workshop programme on the 12th and 13th of November.
The group spent two days together, crossing over with our annual Destination Leader development days at Scottish Agritourism member business, Cairns Farm in West Lothian
The two day intensive programme of personal and business development included building an understanding of Scotland’s agritourism sector and national strategy, coaching and mentoring in managing family dynamics and succession planning, exploring the pros and cons of being young in a business and sharing ideas for developing their own businesses and safeguarding the future of Scotland’s Agritourism sector.
They also heard from Stephen Buchan (pictured), Head of Agriculture (Scotland), Virgin Money, Gold Sponsor of the Scottish Agritourism Conference, who gave advice and tips on creating a business plan with bank funding in mind.
Claire Taylor, Agvocacy Consulting, delivered a training session on public speaking and chairing a panel, in preparation for the Future of Agritourism Session at the forthcoming Scottish Agritourism Conference. Four of the cohort will speak on their own experiences and perspectives as young people in the agritourism sector in an afternoon session on Thursday 27th November. Stephen will join them briefly onstage at the event.
The group also spent a day at Scottish Parliament, meeting George Burgess, Head of Agriculture, Scottish Government; Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform & the Islands; Scottish Conservative MSPs Tim Eagle, Edward Mountain, Racheal Hamilton, Douglas Ross and Alexander Burnett; Rhoda Grant MSP, Scottish Labour, and Willie Rennie MSP, Scottish Liberal Democrats.
The Agritourism Futures programme supports young people operating, developing, considering or working in agritourism and is kindly supported by Scottish Rural Network for a fourth year.
You can view previous Agritourism Futures speakers and presentations here.
