Skip to main content

Americans Boosting Scottish Tourism Market

Scotland has experienced a 6% surge in overseas visitors in 2016, show new figures.

Figures published yesterday (Thursday, 18th) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) highlighted an extra 155,000  overseas visits were made to Scotland last year compared with 2015. A majority of the rise has come from North American tourists, who have been long time fans of the Scottish holiday.



Visitors to Scotland from abroad spent an extra £155 million during their stay, a staggering increase of 9% compared to the previous year.

The popularity for Scotland's main cities is also flourishing, providing a positive boost for the nation. Edinburgh has been ranked the second most popular city for overseas visitors, while Glasgow has come in sixth place.

Tourism Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, said: "These figures underline Scotland's appeal as a world-class tourism destination and are a credit to our tourism industry's hard work to attract and welcome more than 2.7 million overseas visitors last year.

"Our overseas visitors spent £1.85 billion in 2016. A welcome boost for our tourism and hospitality sectors and wider economy."

Visits from North America have increased by 18% between 2015-2016, and Scotland has welcomed more that 1.6 million visitors from across Europe.

The Scottish Government has pronounced their commitment to working with VisitScotland and the tourism sector to help build Scotland's reputation as a must visit country and a return destination.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A&E Getting A Much Needed Boost

To reduce waiting times in accident and emergency departments this year an extra £9 million is being invested into Scotland's unscheduled care sector. The news comes as a huge relief to major A&E sectors in Scotland's cities where waiting times and pressure on staff remains in need of major improvements. Health Secretary, Shona Robison, said: "Scotland's core A&Es have been the best performing in the UK for more than two years and we have already put record investment and increased staffing in our hospitals to achieve long-term, sustainable improvements. "However, we are determined to continue to improve and bring waiting times down further. This additional funding will allow us to continue this work. "Our action plan for unscheduled care has driven changes, speeding up the flow of patients and reducing delayed discharge. This is not just about improving systems in hospitals, but about taking advantage of health and social care integration...

Scots to be Proud of.

J.K. Rowling , born July 31, 1965, is a globally renowned author. She is best known for the Harry Potter fantasy series, the first novel of which was published in 1997, and went on to become a worldwide phenomenon including a series of movies. Through these books Rowling made children’s books a possible field for authors across the globe, completely changing the way we see the children’s novel. She donates to charities on a regular basis. Particularly towards MS groups, and during the recent Scottish referendum donated money to the Better Together campaign. In 2013 she released her latest book The Casual Vacancy. Andy Murray , born May 25, 1987, has been Britain’s number one tennis player since February 2006, and is currently ranked number six in the world. He is a two-time Grand Slam winner, and is arguably Scotland’s best sportsman. Born in Glasgow, Murray attended Dunblane Primary School, and was pre...