Strong summer sees tourism outperform UK

Jan 15, 2010.
North American tourists help Scotland buck credit crunch trend.

Scotland outperformed the rest of the UK in attracting overseas visitors last summer.

Even in the face of the toughest economic climate since the depression, figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that Scotland enjoyed a boost in visitors, with an increase of 25 per cent in visits from North America and an increase of 43 per cent in visits from other countries outside Europe and North America between July and September 2009 compared to the same quarter in 2008.

Scotland also saw an increase in tourist expenditure of 7 per cent between the same three months compared to the same quarter in 2008.

Welcoming the figures, Minister for Tourism Jim Mather, said:

“Tourism is crucial to Scotland’s economic wellbeing and these figures are an excellent indication of the Scottish tourism industry’s hard work and resilience in the face of a global economic downturn.

“These figures compound the success of Homecoming 2009 which proved to be an exceptional year with hundreds of events being heavily promoted throughout the world. During these three key months, Scotland saw huge support from overseas visitors who experienced all that our fantastic country has to offer.

“This Government and our tourism industries will continue to do all we can to attract many more visitors to Scotland throughout 2010. We and the industry are forward planning for the years ahead and looking at every opportunity to further improve our tourism product.”

The UK as a whole experienced a six per cent increase in visitors from North America and a 1 per cent increase from other countries outside Europe and North America between July and September 2009 compared to the same quarter in 2008.

Background

Provisional figures for the number of visits to Scotland by overseas residents is captured by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the publication ‘MQ6: Overseas Travel and Tourism’. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_transport/MQ6-Q3-2009.pdf

The figures relate to the number of International Inbound trips to Scotland and rest of UK for the period July to September 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. The results do not include expenditure figures for Scotland.

Details on expenditure figures for Scotland and the UK can be found in ‘Quarterly Data – Visits to different parts of the UK’ at: http://www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics/visitorstatistics/inbound/latestdata/latestdata.aspx

Contact
Lauren Meldrum :  +44 (0)131 244 2557