The South of Scotland Destination Alliance (SSDA) is the destination management and marketing organisation for the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.
Run by local businesses for local businesses, it exists to support, develop and represent responsible tourism. And it’s having a big impact!
United we stand, divided we fall
Partnership and collaboration are everything. Destinations succeed when they unite:
This is what the SSDA does.
Judge us by the numbers
We’re proud of the positive, demonstrable impact we’re having supporting responsible tourism. The numbers speak for themselves:
- grew its visitor economy by 20% last year, increasing by £150m, to £911m;
- created 14% more jobs, with 15,652 people now employed in tourism;
- increased visitor numbers by 26%, to over 5 million.
Learn more about the latest data
How we promote the South of Scotland
The SSDA is active, every day of the year, promoting the South of Scotland as a world-class destination.
Our consumer-facing brand is ‘Scotland Starts Here’: Our reach in numbers:
Our key target markets include metropolitan adventurers within 2-4 hours, as well as higher-spending international visitors.
We are constantly working with journalists, social media influencers, the travel trade, and film and TV to secure hundreds of positive pieces of national and international coverage and accolades.
Learn more about our media and marketing work
How we support local businesses and develop our destination
We believe in listening to, and being led by, local businesses and communities. So we’ve divided the region into 14 ‘Locally Led Destination Development’ areas and every six months we bring together all the local businesses and communities in each of these areas to listen to, and act on, their local priorities. In this way, there’s a high degree of local ownership as to how areas of the South of Scotland are represented to visitors and how businesses and communities are supported.
All 14 areas have their own dedicated landing page on ‘Scotland Starts Here’ which local businesses help control, and in the autumn of 2024 we are publishing promotional videos for all 14 areas, based on what local businesses want, which are freely available for anyone to use.
How we’re growing our visitor economy by £1 billion
The local priorities we’ve heard from members have fed directly into the 2024-34 South of Scotland Responsible Tourism Strategy which we co-wrote with VisitScotland, SOSE, Dumfries and Galloway Council and Scottish Borders Council. This includes everything from road signs to public toilets: real local priorities which are key to delivering responsible tourism. Thousands fed into this strategy and we now have 118 actions which everyone in the public, private and third sector stands behind.
Every three months, for the next ten years, we publish a detailed report outlining exactly what we’re achieving against these priorities and this strategy.
Working in this collaborative way, we will increase our visitor economy by £1bn and support a further 6,000 jobs.
Having a strong, united, ambitious destination management organisation like the SSDA is transformative for the local visitor economy. We have the ear of government, at the highest levels, and are able to really influence our future by representing local views. Every public organisation is committed to delivering the Responsible Tourism Strategy and looks to the SSDA as the leaders in this field for the South of Scotland.
Learn more about the Responsible Tourism Strategy
How you can get involved
The SSDA is a network of almost 700 businesses, enterprises and community representatives. Everyone in the South of Scotland visitor economy is welcome to join as a member. Joining the SSDA allows businesses to be listed on the consumer-facing ‘Scotland Starts Here’ website and app, and to be at the heart of South of Scotland tourism.
We want the SSDA to be as inclusive as possible and we are proud to offer a 100% free basic membership but, as with all things, the more you put in, the more you benefit. Our core membership is just £85 a year and gives you a full listing on ‘Scotland Starts Here’ with photos.
Those not ready to join but keen to keep updated can sign up to our monthly newsletter which includes all the latest stats on the impact we’re having and a five-minute briefing from our CEO on what we’re doing to support responsible tourism.
