Autumn and winter marketing activities 2026-2027

Read about our domestic and international autumn and winter marketing activities.

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Our autumn and winter marketing activity aims to grow the value of tourism and events in Scotland by attracting more high-value visitors throughout the year, encouraging them to stay longer, and spend more in our communities.

Over the last three years, we've delivered an average return of £13 for ever £1 spent on marketing. We'll continue to build demand for Scotland through targeted, insight-led activity.

Our activity is guided by a strategic framework, enabling us to bring together authentic stories from across Scotland around shared themes, interests and passions that resonate with visitors. By connecting inspiring content with audience interests and travel intent, we'll reach people in the right places and inspire them to discover more of Scotland throughout autumn and winter.

We will work with a wide range of travel and lifestyle media, creator collaborations, partnership activity, and paid media partners such as Tripadvisor and Expedia. This will be complemented by our always-on visitscotland.com and email programme, delivered across six languages to inspire, engage and convert audiences throughout their travel planning journey.

Our approach

Building on the strong performance of previous activity and the latest audience insights, our autumn and winter marketing programme will continue to create demand for Scotland through insight-led content that connects with visitor interests and travel intent.

We know travellers are looking for authentic experiences that enrich, inspire and help them connect more deeply with Scotland's people, places and culture. Through our strategic content framework, we'll bring together stories from across Scotland around shared themes and passion points that reflect what matters most to our audiences and showcase the breadth of experiences available throughout the season.

Learn more on our visitor proposition

Our aim is to reach potential visitors earlier in their travel planning journey, inspiring consideration and helping Scotland stand out in a competitive marketplace. Through a coordinated mix of owned, earned, shared and paid activity, we'll connect with audiences at every stage of their decision-making process.

We're inviting the tourism and events industry to be part of this approach by sharing authentic stories, experiences and expertise that bring Scotland's offer to life. By working together, we can amplify Scotland's distinctiveness, inspire more visits, and encourage visitors to stay longer, spend more, and support communities across the country.

Join us in sharing Scotland's stories

Domestic activity

Domestic activity will focus on the UK market. Specifically key audiences from London, South-East, North-East, North-West, Yorkshire & the Humber, and Scotland.

Motivations and drivers

We’ll target adventure seekers and food-loving culturalists, with focus on families and older independents. These visitors are looking:

to connect with nature and be outdoors
to re-visit somewhere they had a good experience
for escapism and getting away from it all
to connect with family and friends
to experience local food and drink

Find out more about visitors from the UK and our target segments.

Find out more about UK visitors' intentions in our domestic sentiment tracker.

International activity

We prioritise markets where our resources drive the most value to Scotland. For this activity we will focus on the markets of UK, US, France, and Germany.

Motivations and drivers

We’ll target visitors that are looking for:

unique and meaningful activities
bespoke experiences that offer good value for money
shared heritage and ancestry ties
luxury experiences
real-life experiences relating to film / TV locations
escapism to our vast and beautiful landscapes
experience Scotland’s myths and legends

Find out more about our international visitors and our target segments.

Find out more about international visitors' trips, nights, and spend.

How we’ll reach our visitors

We'll focus our resources on high-impact activity in priority markets, reaching audiences through the right mix of channels, partners and content at each stage of their travel planning journey.

Our activity brings together paid, earned, shared and owned channels in a coordinated approach, creating connected audience experiences across multiple touchpoints.

Working with media partners, creators and industry voices, we'll amplify Scotland's stories and seasonal experiences through relevant formats and trusted platforms, inspiring audiences to discover more and consider a visit.

Creators and influencers will play an important role in bringing our content framework to life. Through long-form video, social storytelling and creator collaborations, we'll showcase experiences from across Scotland in ways that feel relatable, inspiring and relevant to different audiences. These creator-led stories will act as anchor content that can be amplified across our wider marketing activity, helping bring seasonal themes to life, strengthen engagement and inspire travel to Scotland.

Multi-touchpoint approach

We'll connect with visitors across digital, social, video, TV, audio, partnerships and media through coordinated marketing activity.
Authentic voices and experiences

We'll work with creators, partners and industry voices to share authentic stories and experiences from across Scotland, helping bring our seasonal themes to life through trusted perspectives and engaging content.

This long-form creator collaboration demonstrates how our content framework translates into audience-focused storytelling, combining authentic experiences and trusted voices to inspire travel and showcase Scotland in a meaningful way.

View the YouTube video, I wasn't prepared for Scotland
Audience-led content

We'll develop content informed by audience interests, travel intent and seasonal opportunities, using a flexible content approach that allows stories to be tailored for different channels, formats and audiences.

This includes editorial features, content hubs, podcasts, creator collaborations, social content, video and email marketing.
Extending the reach

Creator, partner and media collaborations will help amplify our content and connect with new audiences.
Integrated activity

PR, visitscotland.com, email, creators, social media and paid partner activity will work together to strengthen reach, engagement and consideration.

To support this activity, dedicated campaigns promoting seasonal travel opportunities, international connectivity and destinations with capacity to welcome visitors throughout the autumn and winter months will run across key markets.

To support this activity, dedicated campaigns promoting seasonal travel opportunities, international connectivity and destinations with capacity to welcome visitors throughout the autumn and winter months will run across key markets.

Domestic activity

Our autumn and winter activity will;

Encourage

Encourage day trips, short breaks, and holidays across all regions of Scotland.
Celebrate

Celebrate the diversity and quality of experiences Scotland offers, and the personal enrichment they bring to each visitor
Inspire

Inspire people to rediscover the joy of holidaying closer to home.
Invite

Invite exploration of lesser-known regions, helping people uncover new favourite places while supporting communities with the capacity to welcome them.
Highlight

Highlight the unique character of each place and the benefits of visiting throughout the year, showcasing what makes them special in every season.

Key activity

Live from September. It includes:

multi-touchpoint activity with Tripadvisor targeting UK visitors with inspiration for autumn and winter Scottish breaks. Includes an onsite Scotland landing page and adverts, a content creator and podcast activity with Tom Allen’s Pottering, with special episode recorded at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh
digital banners, social and video formats across Sojern, MIQ, Meta and YouTube
partnership activity with Caledonian Sleeper promoting winter breaks live from September
Avanti / LNER / City link - promoting winter off-season breaks and ease of travel to and around Scotland
influencer marketing covering hidden gems, Gaelic culture and public transport, including Banjo Beale

International activity

Our autumn and winter activity will;

Build demand

Build demand for off-season breaks from international visitors.
Promote

Promote Scotland’s year-round accessibility and direct flight connections.
Share

Share the benefits and unique offerings of visiting in autumn and winter.
Position

Position autumn and winter in Scotland as the perfect time to slow down.
Celebrate

Celebrate Scotland as a warm, welcoming destination throughout the year.
Showcase

Showcase the rich variety of experiences Scotland offers for every type of traveller.
Encourage

Encourage city breaks that combine culture with easy access to nature.

Key activity

Live from September. It includes:

connectivity activity with leading travel metasearch platform, Skyscanner to grow demand for autumn and winter breaks and promote direct access to German and French audiences
multi-touchpoint activity with Tripadvisor targeting US, French and German visitors with inspiration for autumn and winter Scottish breaks. Includes an onsite Scotland landing page and adverts, content creators and podcast activity for each market and a content partnership with Harper's Bazaar targeting France and Germany and Emotion targeting Germany
adverts targeting audiences in the US, France and Germany via media platform MiQ, Meta and YouTube, including digital banner adverts and video formats to inspire visits to Scotland
creator content partnership with Matador Network, delivering authentic long-form storytelling content amplified through Matador's distribution network to inspire travel to Scotland
autumnal social media inspiration captured by our in-house team and content creator partners

Building on Boston's Scottish connection

To capitalise on the positive sentiment between Boston & Scotland during the World Cup, we acted quickly to activate adverts targeting Boston in July. Creative focused on a welcome message and highlighted the direct flight routes to Scotland in Autumn to inspire immediate bookings.

This included:

out of home billboard adverts in Boston reflecting the Scottish Spirit experienced in Boston and the warm welcome waiting in Scotland

Boston Globe Print ad with timely 'wish you were here' messaging

Boston Magazine online articles, display adverts, e-newsletters and Instagram takeover highlighting reasons to visit Scotland in Autumn

extended activity with AAA Travel, including travel advisor Scotland training, e-comms to prize entrants, Your AAA Travel article.

activity with online travel agent, Expedia targeting Boston and wider US geos with direct flight messaging and inspiration for Autumn and Winter breaks

inviting Boston influencers to experience Scotland first-hand and share with their followers

Global PR Tour O’ Scotland media challenge

Tour O’ Scotland brings 16 international journalists to Scotland on 24-28 October for a competitive, scavenger-hunt-style press trip. Four regional teams compete in hands-on challenges across the country, then reunite in Glasgow for a Burns Supper finale where the winning team is crowned.

The activation uses interest in the 2027 Tour de France Grand Départ as a hook, then widens the story to Scotland as a year-round, off-season destination. It runs alongside the established press visit programme as a test of a new pan-market model. If we want media to keep telling new stories about Scotland, we need to keep giving them new ways to experience it.

Coverage: 16+ priority outlets across UK, US, Canada, Europe and Australia carrying core key messages to encourage off-season breaks and highlight ease of access when visitors need a reason to choose Scotland and regional tourism businesses benefit most from that choice

Positioning: coverage to carry a vast range of experiences, tapping into each of Scotland’s priority sectors and giving journalists (and thus their audiences) new ways to experience the destination and new stories to tell

Regional spread: earned exposure in 4+ regions, using a ‘hub & spoke’ model to showcase significant geographical territory and support the discovery of lesser-known areas

Our visitscotland.com refresh

A refreshed visitscotland.com launches this autumn, inspiring visitors through immersive storytelling, and helping to picture themselves in Scotland.

With:

richer storytelling at its heart that brings Scotland’s people, places and culture to life, showcasing the incredible range of experiences across the country

content written to stand out in AI search, helping more people find VisitScotland as they plan their trip

using user-generated content, standout imagery, and video to create a more vivid, human view of Scotland and turn inspiration into action

fresh trip ideas designed to encourage visitors to travel sustainably, explore more widely and to experience more while they are here

first-hand voices that add warmth and authenticity, helping people picture themselves here

a more focused site, shaped by extensive research and user testing, makes inspiration and information easier to find

simpler navigation that will guide visitors quickly to the places and experiences that matter to them

this autumn and winter, seasonal stories will spotlight events, food and drink, atmospheric escapes and memorable cold-weather experiences

Browse visitscotland.com

Autumn and winter marketing activities 2026-2027

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Our approach