Musings 1 Year on from a Silver Thistle Award

A bit slow, but I got there…!

Thing is, receiving the VisitScotland Silver Thistle Award last year was a huge honour and even BIGGER surprise. So it’s taken a while to understand what it means.

Because awards aren’t just about what you’ve done. They're about what you’re going to do:

A promise

A responsibility

A statement of intent

When I stumbled, humbled, onto the stage I shared something I believe deeply. I said that tourism is the most nurturing place to build a career.  It's blind to your age, accent, background, grades - it only sees you and the power of who you can be, encouraging your every step. And so it made me.

And that has become my North Star ever since.

The privilege of being a Silver Thistle recipient has given me clarity of purpose coupled with a hefty responsibility:

—to lift up and cheer on our incredible people in our remarkable industry every day.

—to speak up, addressing poverty and inequality by translating the benefits of Fair Work and campaigning to tax wealth not work.

—to co-design a future WITH and FOR our community, rooting our success in a interdependent, regenerative model so all benefit and thrive.

All of which I do gladly and in step with the B Corp and Poverty Alliance movements.

And so a heartfelt thanks again to VisitScotland and Scottish tourism.

Know that your Silver Thistle Winner is doing her very best and working hard. I’m taking steps every day (sometimes leaps!) to show my thanks by giving back as much as I’ve been lucky to receive.

Kat Brogan, Silver Thistle Award Winner, 2024

Kat Brogan is the managing director of Mercat Tours and Mercat Tours International, where she has led the business to national recognition and growth since 2014. Under her leadership, Mercat Tours has grown into expert-led storytelling experiences of Scotland’s capital.