The subject of the conference is about the important link between tourism and heritage in a fast-changing world. Visitors are attracted to the natural and cultural heritage of regions like the Highlands, where this heritage plays such a significant role in the tourism offer, but is also part of a living community. Increasingly there is the need to balance the economic demands of visitor access, with cultural and environmental sensitivity in any location.

2007 is a year of cultural celebration in the Scottish Highlands, and this special conference not only marks the 30th Anniversary of the Tourism Society, but also celebrates the significant contribution that Scottish cultural and natural heritage makes to the national tourism profile.

Key speakers include Peter Lederer, Chairman of VisitScotland; William Roe, Chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise; David Green, Convener of the Cairngorms National Park Authority; Professor Sandy Pentland, Media Lab, MIT; Dr. Nancy Arsenault, Dean of Tourism at Royal Roads University, Canada and Professor Stephen Tinsley from the Sustainable Development Research Centre, UHI.

The conference is being organised in collaboration with the UHI Millennium Institute (UHI), a distinctive and innovative higher education institution offering vocational, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Its distinctive MSc in Interpretation: management and practice is a unique programme borne out of a multi-agency collaboration, that seeks to promote Scotland's position as a world leader in the thinking and practice of the interpretation cultural and natural heritage- two of Scotland's key assets.

The conference dinner will be held on Thursday 17th May in the highest restaurant in the UK, at 3,500 feet up the Cairngorm Mountain in Cairngorm National Park, accessible only by funicular railway! The conference will also include study visits to Rothiemurchus Estate, the Highland Folk Museum, Culloden Battlefield, Glenmore Visitor Centre and Loch Garten Osprey Centre.

Bookings can be made through Flo Powell at the Tourism Society or via the website on www.tourismsociety.org. Discounted packages are available for the full three days as well as concessions for students and retired.