Proponents argue that National Park status could rejuvenate the area, attracting investment and creating jobs in struggling rural communities. Yet others warn that over-tourism could replicate the problems seen on the North Coast 500:

• Congested roads: Popular tourist routes strain infrastructure, making daily life harder for locals.

• Environmental degradation: Litter, habitat disruption, and overuse of natural sites.

• Loss of identity: The “Disneyfication” of rural Scotland, where locals feel alienated from their communities.

This forces us to ask whether National Park designation inherently benefits communities—or whether it must be coupled with forward-thinking infrastructure and tourism management.

“Overtourism, is having people visiting before you have the facilities to enable them to enjoy it.”

Professor Emeritus Peter Butler, University of Strathclyde says “Overtourism is not inevitable anywhere, perhaps despite appearances to the contrary in recent years. It is generally a result of places and people not looking ahead, not deciding what is acceptable”

So the answer lies with us then, all of us, in the National Park and Gateway communities. We need to decide how to run a National Park for us, the people of Galloway, South and East Ayrshire.

Professor Butler again “accepting growth will occur but not being prepared to control it or to set in place procedures to enable control of numbers and development is a recipe for anger and opposition by those affected who feel, often justifiably, that they have no say in how things are developing because no-one or no agency is taking responsibility for controlling growth.”

“One cannot wait for the future to happen, one has to decide what future is wanted and needed.”

As communities we can no longer sit back and expect others to create our future:

The future is in the our hands and our communities and we need to make it happen and happen how we want it to be. Our National Park, run by the people of Galloway and Ayrshire, can shape our visitor economy around the changing needs and desires of our communities and visitors.

Tourism and our visitor economy are both our best opportunity for economic revitalisation and our biggest threat to community cohesion and infrastructure.

• Gateway centres can be the start of visitor interaction to create positive pathways that lead to greater visitor enjoyment and increased visitor monetisation within our visitor economy.

• Managed visitor pathways can minimise impact on communities, avoid choke points and optimise visitor experience.

• Gateway centres can provide retail opportunities for activity and outdoor businesses and fast food branches for existing viable local restaurants and hotels.

• Using guides, rangers and advisers embedded within our Gateways, we can guide visitors to linked routes between attractions, activities and hospitality; steering visitors with fixed price eating offers and rewards for completing routes.

• Serviced car parks with toilets can act as Mini Gateways that form part of tourist routes that avoid choke points and create small businesses from Toilet operations, car parking monetisation, guiding and linked entertainment whilst providing great visitor value and experience.

• Day visitors fro Central Belt can be targeted with Day Out Offers and activities that start from gateway centres

• Staycation marketing can target 7m potential visitors from NW England using TikTok, Instagram Facebook and Youtube

• Overnight visitor promotions can target shoulder months Jan-April and Sept-Dec linked to activities and attractions.

• Dark Skies focus can link Kirkcudbright planetarium, Clatteringshaws SDSO and other Dark Skies sites where “Telescopes for hire” can be offered.