Scottish Agritourism Welcomes Scottish Government’s Agritourism Investment Scheme
A £1 million capital grant scheme for agritourism businesses, announced by Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and the Islands, Mairi Gougeon, at the Scottish Agritourism conference in November, has opened for applications. The Agritourism Investment Scheme (AIS), will provide flexible capital support for investment in agritourism businesses, to help enable financially sustainable, profitable, and resilient businesses that will play a key role in sustaining the future of Scottish agriculture.
The AIS is the first dedicated Scottish Government funding scheme to be specifically announced for agritourism. Scottish Agritourism Sector Lead, Caroline Millar, welcomed the scheme and commented; “Scottish Agritourism has lobbied the Scottish Government for agritourism specific capital grants for two years via the National Agritourism Strategy Board. We collected and shared a huge amount of data that clearly showed the effects of LEADER and SRDP funding on the sector. Both of these grant schemes have given some of the largest and most established businesses in the sector the capital boost they needed to grow and develop and we look forward to seeing the benefits from AIS and the difference this will make to the future of Scotland’s agritourism.
While we welcome a £1 million fund, we are aware there are many quality and innovative agritourism business proposals in the pipeline and the AIS can only support a percentage of these. We hope that if this investment programme delivers, we will see further investment during the next parliamentary term.”
The Scottish Agritourism Conference also included an announcement on sector value and highlighted extremely positive progress towards 2030 National Agritourism Strategy KPIs. Data from a national agritourism census undertaken in August 2025, showed that annual agritourism visitor numbers have reached 2.5 million, exceeding the KPI of 2 million; four times the annual number of visitors to popular day destination, Stirling Castle and not including 200,000 people who stayed overnight on a Scottish farm.
The combined value of agritourism and farm retail now measures £292 million; an increase of £120 million from Scotland’s last sector growth tracker in 2022, a figure which surpasses the sector KPI of £250 million, a target set for 2030. The figure does not include a value for supply chain spend and the uplift is thought to be driven by new entrants, investment by existing businesses, more quality data and partially by inflation.
Caroline, adds: “Both numbers demonstrate the growth of agritourism in Scotland as the sales arm of agriculture and opportunities to build trust with Scottish farms, to improve health and wellbeing, to enjoy the environment, food and drink and to visit other businesses in the local community. Strong data which clearly demonstrates sector growth has been invaluable in supporting the case for agritourism investment.” The delivery of capital grants for agritourism was also a key pillar of the 2030 National Agritourism Strategy.
Addressing delegates at the Scottish Agritourism Conference, and announcing the Agritourism Investment Scheme, Ms Gougeon, acknowledged significant challenges in the business landscape and agritourism sector resilience in spite of these, and said; “Scottish Agritourism has built excellent business case in support of capital grants for agritourism. I would like to thank Caroline for raising issues and collecting case studies for the National Agritourism Strategy Board that have demonstrated the impact capital grants can have on individual business and sector growth. I am delighted to announce a Scottish Government investment scheme is being finalised and will be open for applications early in the new year.”
The planned amount of capital investment from agritourism and farm retail businesses in the coming two years (from those that responded to the census) is £200 million, a significant figure that also has a huge impact on support, professional and financial services.