Scotland’s growing appeal as an international visitor destination has been underlined by figures published today, which show that the country's tourism sector continues to outperform other parts of the UK.
A total of 1,975,000 visits were made to Scotland by overseas residents in the first six months of the year, up 14% on the same period of 2023 and a rise of 46% on 2019. Visitors to Scotland spent £1.5 billion over that period, 2% higher than 2023 and 30% on 2019, adjusted for inflation.
European visitors were responsible for just over half of all trips during that period, followed by North American visitors who continue to show the largest growth in visits with a 54% increase on 2023, the latest Office for National Statistics figures for the International Passenger Survey show.
Vicki Miller, the new chief executive of VisitScotland, said: “These figures show that Scotland continues to be a destination of choice for international visitors in 2024 and is still outperforming other parts of the UK.
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“They are a testament to the strength of Scotland’s offering with visits and spend up on 2019 and 2023, which was a record-breaking year for international visitors. These visitors, who stay longer and spend more, are crucial to our industry and the visitor economy, supporting businesses and communities across the country.
“Scotland’s strong international recovery has been a result of the work carried out by VisitScotland, industry and partners to drive demand over the last few years. We must continue building on this across our key markets, inspiring both domestic and international visitors through the channels we know they use to drive the visitor economy, growing its value to Scotland.”
The new figures come hard on the heels of the first major interview given by Ms Miller since succeeding Malcolm Roughead in the top job at VisitScotland on October 1.
Ms Miller, who has worked for the national tourism agency since 2005, put the current appeal of the country among overseas tourists down to the relentless marketing of Scotland which did not stop during the pandemic.
“We did not go quiet during Covid,” Ms Miller told The Herald. “We continued as an organisation to keep Scotland front of mind through all of our channels, and the relationships we have with travel and lifestyle media and travel intermediaries in our markets that we knew would be critical to selling Scotland when travel was able to begin again.
“So, we have had that concerted effort. Then, with the very strong event programme that we have in Scotland, and that focus on the ‘perfect stage’ strategy and a fantastic few years of very strong events… it has really allowed us to spotlight Scotland."
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