This paper examines event tourism partnerships in the Highlands area of Scotland. These
arrangements are profiled in relation to tourism development in the region and to the policies
of both regional and local tourism, economic development and arts agencies. Three
partnerships are scrutinized within the context of existing theories and observations about
the evolution of tourism partnerships that propose stages of context, formation, planning
and implementation. It is observed that some event tourism partnerships are terminated
once they have accomplished the goals of program implementation and met the policies of
regional tourism and economic development and arts strategies, while others continue. Based
on the experiences of the event alliances studied a further stage in the evolution of tourism
partnerships; that of conclusion is therefore proposed.