Scotland Visitor Survey

1. Highlights of the visitor experience

In general, we find that visitors are very positive about their holiday or short break experiences, given the level of time, planning, and cost they have invested to personalise their trip.

• 71% of visitors rated their experience in Scotland as a nine or a ten on a ten-point scale
• 82% of visitors are likely to recommend Scotland (nine or ten out of ten)
• 80% of visitors are quite or very likely to return to Scotland in the next five years

Nine or ten scores on a ten-point scale show genuine satisfaction and can foster loyalty. The challenge is to enhance every visitor experience to encourage more people to give the highest score.

3. Methodology

The survey collated views on a wide range of topics to understand visitor attitudes and behaviours. This supplemented annual statistical surveys about tourism in Scotland that are undertaken at a national level. The sample comprises overnight leisure visitors only.

The following types of visitor were not within the scope of this research:

• visitors on a day trip from home
• visitors on a business trip
• cruise ship visitors

Face-to-face interviews were conducted at 135 sampling points across 23 regions in Scotland. A more detailed online survey was emailed to face-to-face respondents.

The 2023 survey was undertaken during the spring, summer, and autumn seasons. This is based on the need to gather visitor views in an efficient manner. More detailed information is available within the methodology and technical appendix.