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Hotels in Scotland Enjoyed a Record Number of Overseas Visitors in 2017

It turns out that last year was a record one for the hospitality industry of Scotland. According to the new information available in the ONS Travel Trends 2017, both visits and spending of overseas travelers reached the highest result on record. That means these metrics were the highest ever since Scotland’s authorities started keeping the statistics in 1961.

According to the information published, 16.9% more overseas visitors arrived in Scotland last year, reaching a 3.2 million milestone. The expenditures of foreign guests grew even faster, adding 23% to £2.3 billion. European visitors are the biggest category that is mostly responsible for the growth. In 2017, as many as 1.7 million Europeans visited Scotland, which is 17% more than in 2016. Their total spending added 36% and exceeded 1 billion British pounds. At the same time when analyzing the growth of European visitors across the UK, the increase is almost non-existent – just 1% up while the total spending fell by 1%.

There is a number of reasons why Scotland has such a successful year in 2017. First of all, a number of events made Scotland more attractive to foreign visitors. These are events like the Year of History, Heritage, and Archaeology. Digital activity of VisitScotland also helped to attract more visitors.

Naturally, hotels in Scotland enjoyed a profitable year, but the local economy, in general, benefited from the record year for visits of overseas travelers. Tourism is among the most important industries that provide jobs to 207,000 people in Scotland. As the UK will leave the EU soon, Scottish authorities hope that there will be no problem for all Europeans to visit the country.

According to VIsitScotland representatives, various digit campaigns and inspirational content are among the top reasons why so many travelers are eager to visit the region. Information and interesting promotions make travelers eager to visit Scotland, turning this destination a decent competitor on the global scale. When it comes to the local hospitality industry, hotels in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and many other Scottish cities enjoyed a good year and are looking forward to new records in 2018.

29.07.2018

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