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Article published 12/06/2025

Spotlight on the US

We know to best influence the behaviours and travel choices of visitors we must reach them early, often at the beginning of their planning. Ours is an end-to-end marketing approach that spans product development, routes to market and the promotion of Scotland as a must visit, year-round destination. This ensures we keep Scotland front of mind in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.

Using insight into how consumers search and use advice and information when planning and booking travel, we create and curate engaging and inspiring content which brings to life the people and places behind Scotland’s world-renowned offering.

As part of our new marketing strategy, we’ll focus on driving global demand for sustainable travel experiences in Scotland, with an emphasis on encouraging year-round visits to help spread tourism across regions and seasons.

This article looks at our key growth market for inbound tourism to Scotland, the United States. It shares an update on our latest and upcoming marketing activity, where we’re focused on building awareness and increasing likelihood to visit.

In this article:

Scotland’s top international market

In order to reach the right audiences with the right messages, we need to understand what is driving visitor decisions and behaviours. Our marketing activity centres around key themes that resonate with our target visitors. 

Longstanding is their love for Scotland. For a great many of them Scotland has been a place of ancestral connection and belonging, and more generally they enjoy Scotland’s unique heritage and cultural attractions. Luxury and golf travellers have continued to grow, but the emerging trend is increasingly one of “meaningful travel”, which Scotland is developing to deliver.

The US market

  • Value

    The US is Scotland’s largest inbound market, delivering 20% of all overseas trips and 34% of all overseas spend. US visitors powered the return of international tourism post-COVID and in 2023  leisure visits increased 39% on 2019, with spend up 84%.

  • Audience

    We tend to find that our US market are higher yield travellers, so they tend to spend more, stay longer, and engage in more premium, immersive experiences during their trips. They're predominantly in the age range of 45-65 and multi-generational visits are strong. We can also see that 15% of US travellers come here to visit friends and relatives.

    The US is a large country, and we tend to focus our media spend primarily on the New York tri-state area, Boston / Massachusetts and California. As well as a secondary focus on potential visitors from Florida, Washington DC, Chicago and Atlanta. Our work with tour operators and our own channels allows us to reach potential visitors right across the US.

  • Proposition

    US travellers tend to be interested in:

    • green, dramatic and majestic landscapes
    • clan heritage and ancestry, with many feeling close affinity to Scotland and the Scots
    • rich history and culture
    • film and TV, a strong travel influencer
    • active and “meaningful travel”
    • immersive cultural and community experiences

Given the addition of more new air routes and increased seats from the US – and Canada too – our North American visitors should find Scotland’s rich culture, history, and landscapes to be an irresistible draw for their next overseas holiday. And now is the perfect time to remind them of the warm and genuine welcome that awaits them as they seek out authentic, engaging experiences.

Learn more on our Business Support Hub website about the US market so you can adjust your product and marketing to reach this audience.

Our strategy in action: future focus

Key consumer tactics

  • Owned channels

    • highlight direct access to Scotland via our own channels – visitscotland.com, social and enewsletters
    • sharing inspirational content and amplifying social proof (where people tend to follow the actions or opinions of others) through our owned channels and collaborations with influencers
    • our enewsletters are tailored depending on visitor interests and sent fortnightly to consumers
    • social media activity engages year-round with the US market
       

  • Global press

    • our press trip programme sees 17 individual press trips confirmed between April and October as well as supporting four TV crews for filming – upcoming press trips with Oprah Daily and Dossier
    • recruiting US media for VisitScotland and VisitBritain September press trips with early interest from Cosmopolitan and Town & Country
    • media and travel trade pitches on what’s new in Scotland
    • proactive press outreach through new outlets / formats e.g. podcasts, Substack, as well as in market meet the media visits

  • Campaign and partnerships

    • continuing to highlight direct access to Scotland including through our airline and tour operator partners’ own channels and sales teams
    • we’ll continue our partnerships with Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and content partners as we see more and more holiday journeys starting with huge travel brands, with their websites hugely powerful because they’re both informative and interactive
    • partnership campaign activity showcasing Scotland as a destination for the luxury traveller from the US
    • autumn and winter breaks campaign 2025/26 highlighting the attractions of Scotland out of season and year-round direct access from the North American markets  

This includes activities funded as part of a ringfenced project to drive incremental visits by highlighting Scotland’s increasing direct access options through 2025/26. We’ll be looking to drive demand and interest for autumn and winter breaks in Scotland from international markets with seasonal connectivity.

These activities will complement our core international and partnership activities. We’ll want to work closely with industry partners to map out autumn and winter experiences that we can showcase as part of this activity – more to come on our plans shortly.

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Key business to business tactics

  • Owned channels

    • dedicated travel trade website is updated with new trade-ready experiences in Scotland and supplier listings and contact details
    • a monthly e-newsletter and our “what’s new” press are sent to our database of global travel trade subscribers

  • Account management

    • key account management of target travel intermediaries, who make the contracting decisions for travel programmes, driving responsible, new and extended itineraries into market

  • Education

    • destination training, roadshows and online webinars to key North American Tour Operators and Travel Advisors, continues to promote Scotland as a year-round and welcoming destination

  • Events

    • low cost / no cost entry events support for businesses to meet planners / contractors 
    • attendance at Destination Britain North America with workshops for British suppliers to meet North American buyers

Our latest activity

Our marketing strategy for 2025-26 draws on the successful approach and building blocks deployed in 2024-25, positioning Scotland as an inclusive, year-round destination that delivers powerfully enriching personal experiences. Here’s a round-up of some of that activity.

Partnerships

  • collaborative activity with airline partners to raise awareness of Scotland’s enhanced accessibility – including JetBlue, Delta and American
  • partnership with Luxury Gold included the creation of its new “Spectacular Scotland” itinerary (launched 2 May), on a 10-day tour of Scotland which delivers a meaningful and responsible itinerary with immersive experiences and supporting lesser-known regions, local communities, and the environment
  • significant Online Travel Agent (OTA) media investment over the quarter three and four period, generated a return on advertising spend of £117:£1, through flight, room and activity bookings

Global press

  • May coverage includes Lonely Planet, The Week, and Associated Press
  • working together with NBC in the US, Scotland will be the premiere destination in an exciting travel series "Extra Mile Club". Scotland will be the star of the show, as two top travel advisors from Global Travel Collection compete to deliver the ultimate luxury travel experience for a celebrity couple.







Trade events and programme development

  • VisitScotland Connect 2025 took place during April and welcomed 271 travel trade buyers from around the globe to meet 243 Scottish suppliers and businesses across two days of workshops
  • there were 73 North American tour operators at VisitScotland Connect and they participated across our 13 familiarisation trips to inspire new and extended Scotland programmes for sale in the North American markets
  • ongoing key account activity at home an out on territory continues to drive new programme development in the US and Canadian markets
  • positioning Scotland as a must-visit destination and reinforcing the “welcome” message at our “Selling Luxury Travel Virtual Roadshow” to a US and Canadian trade audience and across our wider travel trade programme

The data and insights we’ve gathered on the North America travel market allow us to understand trends and opportunities for Scottish tourism – and more importantly – respond to the ever-changing global political and economic environment.

Get the key takeaways from our work with the North American market in our news story.

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About our visitors

Find out who visits Scotland, what they're interested in, and what they're looking for.

Market development

Attracting inbound leisure, business and corporate travel through a mix of strategic marketing, intermediary, partner and media relations activities.