Target markets

To ensure that we are marketing Scotland in the most effective and efficient way we need to focus our activities on the markets which offer the greatest current and future potential. These core markets are the ones that we anticipate will deliver the best return on investment.

National and international markets

The UK remains our biggest market and is of great importance to us; representing 77% of trips and 56% of spend (2018). We market Scotland to this domestic holiday market, basing our strategy on wide-ranging and detailed consumer information.

International markets are also extremely important to Scottish tourism. Foreign visitors tend to stay longer than domestic visitors, their total expenditure during their visit is higher – so while 23% of the total number of trips made to Scotland in 2018 were by foreign visitors, this share provided around 44% of total expenditure (2018).

To establish our international market focus, we used our insights into visitor spend in Scotland, growth potential and ease of access to Scotland – which we know is a major factor when people choose a holiday destination.

This, combined with our knowledge of each market’s travel behaviour and preferences, our ability to reach them and encourage them to visit, and our competitors’ activity in each market led us to identify our core markets as:

• UK - England North West, South East, Yorkshire, London, North East & Scotland.
• US - New York, California, Illinois, Florida, Texas. 
• Germany - North Rhine Westphalia, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lower Saxony, Hesse and Bavaria.
• France - North East, South East and Paris.
• China - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou.    

Other growth markets

Although the above countries are our main focus where we invest additional media spend; owned, earned and partner channel activity will also happen in key secondary markets of Canada, Australia, UAE, India, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Italy.

Intermediaries like Tour Operators and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) also play a crucial role in these markets providing holidaymakers with the information they need to choose a destination and plan their trip. To help grow these markets, a big focus on activity is on encouraging such intermediaries to feature Scotland ahead of competitor destinations.

We also work closely with our partner organisation VisitBritain, which is tasked with marketing Britain across key growth markets and VisitScotland plays a crucial part in this work.