Among Scotland’s many international success stories, tourism and events stands out. Our sector helps share Scotland’s story with the world, enhances our global reputation and presents fantastic export opportunities.
We know the appetite for Scotland is there internationally, with the latest data showing strong demand for Scotland from key markets such as North America, Germany, France, China and Australia.
While this positive news is welcome, it contrasts somewhat with the picture in the domestic market. Though international visits and spend are up, visits and spend from the UK continue to be affected by the rising cost of living. This is holding back the overall growth of Scotland’s tourism and events sector.
As we look ahead to autumn and winter, we’ll be aiming to address these domestic market challenges by encouraging visitors across the UK to enjoy a staycation or day trip in Scotland. In tandem with this domestic focus, we’ll continue to invest in international markets and support businesses, to grow our share of global travel.
Tourism and events businesses across Scotland can use our insight and knowledge of channels to reach overseas audiences. Our business and experience development activities see us helping tourism and events businesses create memorable experiences and connect with international markets either directly or through the travel trade.
Our new corporate plan includes a clear commitment to help more businesses tap into international interest in Scotland. We want to support internationalisation and exports, aiming for a minimum of 300 additional Scottish businesses to be ‘travel trade ready’ per annum. Internationally, many customers book through intermediaries such as travel agents and tour operators, making this an important part of our overall market development strategy.
Of course, growing international interest in Scotland must be complementary to our route development activity. Through this, we build a stronger route network by working closely with Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, airline partners and Scottish airports to address connectivity gaps. In addition to our route development efforts, we work year-round with airlines to stimulate demand.
This work is already yielding great results for the year ahead with Scotland enjoying more airline capacity from North America in spring/summer 2025 than ever before, with seats from the US to Scotland up 31% on 2024, and seats from Canada up 7% on last year.
Our vibrant events also help attract visitors to Scotland. We work closely with Scottish Government to secure a pipeline of major events, like the Tour de France Grand Depart, due to take place in part here in 2027, and UEFA Euro 2028. Then there are annual events like Edinburgh’s Festivals, Celtic Connections and our portfolio of golf events, helping showcase Scotland globally and making Scotland the perfect stage for events.
Alongside these world class sporting and cultural events, we also work with partners to attract association conferences, which brought approximately 140,000 delegates to Scotland in 2023/24. These events make a significant contribution to Scotland’s visitor economy with delegates spending more than leisure visitors, extending their stay and visiting during less busy periods.
Bringing these strands of activity together, from marketing campaigns and product development to major events and international connectivity, helps generate demand, convert interest into visits, and drive economic value. This powers our vibrant visitor economy that supports communities, businesses, and destinations right across Scotland.
