VIEW FROM The Chamber

Lochaber Chamber of Commerce does not just promote Lochaber as a fantastic place to experience the outdoors through the hugely popular Outdoor Capital of the UK brand.

We also work with West Highland College UHI and other academic partners across Europe to develop training and product innovations for the outdoor tourism market through ADVENT.

The ADVENT project aims to develop new initiatives in adventure tourism education that target both those already working in adventure tourism businesses and young tourism students.

Tourism is a vital economic sector for many rural communities and adventure tourism in particular has grown rapidly in recent years.

With this growth comes an increased need for skilled guides and other key employees and new ways of working that meet the needs of the future. As we all know, it is vital not to rest on your laurels in business, and innovation is just as important in outdoor tourism as other sectors. That’s why the teams in the partner countries – Scotland, Iceland and Finland – have been working hard to establish vocational courses based on gaps in the adventure tourism market.

Training modules are currently in development and we will be working with Lochaber Chamber of Commerce members from the outdoor tourism sector to test drive the pilot modules later in the year.

If you’d like to find out more about the projects, visit www.lochaberchamber.co.uk/projects