Case study | Mercat Tours

Who are Mercat Tours?

Mercat Tours was founded by Des Brogan, a passionate history teacher. He had a simple mantra that  ‘History is a damn good story.  What it needs is a damn good telling’

Established in 1985, Mercat Tours has grown to become an award-winning family business offering history walks and ghost tours of Edinburgh. We focus on making meaningful connections with their visitors, the city and the past through storytelling.

Tour guide talks to visitors on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

What do you and your team enjoy about working in Scottish tourism?

Tourism is the most inclusive and inspiring sector to develop a career in. It holds the power to create diverse, dynamic teams that attract passionate people to work and equally supports communities to thrive. We believe that tourism is everyone's business, where everyone has a place.

The team is led by the desire to look after people, building community before profit.  The new project, ‘Our Stories, Your City’, reconnects disconnected and vulnerable communities of Edinburgh with their city through storytelling, paid for by visitors’ donations, demonstrating tourism as a force for good.

Tour guide entertains crowd of visitors.

Tell us about the ‘Our Stories, Your City’ project

In 2020, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic gave everyone a far deeper understanding of exclusion -  from life, choices, opportunities and connections.  This led to the idea that Mercat Storytellers can use their skills to reconnect vulnerable communities with their city through storytelling on five-star tours. Paid for by visitors’ donations and supporting local Living Wage jobs this is a win win for everyone, equally.

Stories are powerful. They make connections between people, places and the past.

Sadly, some people have lost that connection. Those in vulnerable communities can feel cut off from their city and their stories.  They live here, but the stories are not theirs.  This can happen to anyone, such as those helped by the Grassmarket Community Project (GCP), in our local schools in isolated communities.

Dislocation from their culture holds them back and can be caused by lack of money, confidence or opportunity - made acute by the pandemic and cost of living crisis.  Stories can help them to recover and our visitors can help too.

Donations from Mercat visitors buy GCP members and vulnerable local kids the same five-star tour as they enjoy, free of charge. These are offered at an exclusive discount by attractions, paid for by visitors.

What are successes from the project?

The success of our relationship is rooted in the shared belief Mercat and GCP have in the importance of community.

This progress is thanks to our visitors belief in the power of storytelling to make connections. As the donations continue to grow, so does the strength of our promise to use storytelling to benefit those who need it most.

Some key stats:

• £5,600 donated
• 56 tours funded
• 840 GCP members benefited

And finally, what’s in the pipeline for 2024?

We’ve just celebrated our second birthday and fantastic "firsts" for our project.

These include:

• Four local schools with young people most likely to suffer from lack of opportunity in Edinburgh benefited from five-star tours free of charge.
• A full minibus of GCP members enjoyed a day trip to Fife including mini-golf at Pittenweem and ice cream in Anstruther, to escape a busy Edinburgh in August.
• We hosted a storytelling workshop. The craft of storytelling can help to unlock your voice and confidence. 10 GCP members had great fun in a half-day workshop to find their own words and style.
• storytelling over supper. For the first time GCP relaxed over a meal and shared a tale with Mercat Storytellers.

This year will see us sharing the ‘Our Stories, Your City’ project story even more broadly, inspiring visitors to donate so we can host more GCP members and support local schools on tours free of charge.

Tour guide at Mercat's underground tour.