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Tourism Quarter 3 Data and Current Trends

VisitScotland???s quarterly data reveals a positive upturn in tourist growth from a domestic and European perspective.

Date : 25/02/2014

A strong quarter 3

VisitScotland has released its rolling tourism industry figures for 2013, quarter 3. There are two main indicators from the statistics on domestic and European numbers.

Visits and spend were predominantly up on 2012, which suggest the ‘green shoots’ of economic upturn in Europe are starting to have an effect on Scottish tourism despite the exchange rate. Visitor numbers, particularly from our core Europe customers, were substantially higher than Q3 in 2012. Half of all international visitors were from the EU. The numbers suggest the beginnings of a much-needed upturn for the euro.

The second positive centres on healthy domestic visitor numbers during this quarter, showing a distinct trend towards UK travellers favouring rural areas. There was an 8.1% increase in holiday trips to Scotland by British residents in quarter 3 of 2013 compared to quarter 3 of 2012. In comparison the figure for Britain as a whole recorded a 2.2% increase in holiday trips for the same period.

Good summer weather as well as the Year of Natural Scotland campaign for 2013 were the most likely trigger for increased domestic holiday visits and as a 3% increase in stays at Scottish holiday parks. Northern Scotland saw a particularly healthy increase in domestic visitor numbers.

Looking to the present

We’re always at the weather’s mercy in Scotland and it’s possible that may have caused the drop in visits towards the latter part of last year. However, early results suggest it didn’t adversely affect October figures, which were up slightly for most sectors.

What can we learn?

If the weather is still a major talking point with your customers this winter there are hundreds of indoor attractions to keep them busy. The Royal Yacht Britannia celebrated its 60th birthday in 2013 and clocked up its best visitor numbers since 2003 (a staggering 300,000 visitors between January and November 2013). So there’s plenty to do indoors including museums and castles, indoor sports activities and of course shopping during the more inclement days.

And while the weather doesn’t always lend itself to outdoor activities, the ski areas in Scotland are experiencing their best winter for snowfall in years. Cairngorm Mountain recently commented on their Facebook page “60 out of 64 days of snowfall”. Perfect for powder lovers and ideal for capitalising on Winter Olympics fever.

Further reading

Read the full VisitScotland Trends and Insights reports.

Find more research and statistics from VisitScotland.

 

Image courtesy Scottish Viewpoint.