Nearly 400 tickets were booked for this years’ Ross Walking Festival, run as usual, on the last weekend of September. About 30% of these were bought by locals and a slightly similar amount by people from much further afield – even as far as New Zealand, Canada or Poland!

Ross Walkers are Welcome have developed an Economic Assessment model to give an indication of how much direct benefit the walking festival and wider activities of the group bring to our town. For 2025, using the data from the festival as a base, with extrapolation based on the extent of marketing activities, the estimate is a whopping £26.3k! This money will have been spent in hotels, campsites, cafés, restaurants, buses, etc, which in turn pays for local salaries, suppliers, and so on. Our estimate uses national tourism spend data, with some sense checking to take account of our visitor profiles and likely spends around here; and while there is never any accurate answer, we are confident that this is a “reasonable” estimate.

The Walkers are Welcome team do their best to promote local independent businesses through the website, 12,000 flyers, social media and other activities; and are grateful for the support that they receive in return. Do contact us on rosswalkingfestival@outlook.com for more information on the activities of the group, or to get involved for 2026