Autumn and winter marketing activities 2025-2026

Find information on our domestic and international autumn and winter marketing activities.

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.

By sharing inspiring content and making sure it’s seen by more people in the right places, we’ll reach a wider audience and encourage them to connect with Scotland in a meaningful way.

We will work with a wide range of travel and lifestyle media, social media and influencer collaborations, partnership activity and paid media such as NBC, Expedia, and Channel 4. Find out more in this article.

Our approach

In 2024/25 our activity delivered strong results, with a return on investment rising to £18:1 from £11:1 previously. Building on what we know works and using the latest insights on consumer behaviour and travel planning, we’ll continue to deliver impact and return.

We know where audiences spend their time online and how they make decisions. That’s why this year we’re adapting our activity with new media tactics, immersive partnerships, and a stronger focus on authentic storytelling. Our aim is to connect with visitors earlier in their journey, on the channels that influence where they go, when they come, and what they do.

Our marketing strategy covers product and business development, routes to market, and promoting Scotland as a destination. By reaching visitors where it matters, we can encourage them to stay longer, spend more, and support communities across Scotland.

Learn more on our visitor proposition page.

Wellbeing remains a key driver for travel, so we’ll show how Scotland feeds the mind, body, and soul through genuine stories that capture the country’s spirit. But we can’t do this alone. The most powerful stories are told by many voices.

We’re asking the whole industry to get involved, sharing experiences, telling stories, and contributing to a consistent narrative of Scotland.

When we work together, our impact grows. People listen, and Scotland stands out.

By uniting behind this approach, we can attract more visitors, strengthen our industry, and build a sustainable future for tourism and events in Scotland.

We’ve created storytelling pillars to enable us to market Scotland in a way that feels consistent, engaging, and memorable.

Join us in sharing Scotland's stories.

How we’ll reach our visitors

We’ll focus our resources on strategic, high-impact initiatives in key markets. These efforts will be designed to last, bringing together the full range of paid, earned and owned marketing tools – such as PR, partnerships, social, paid and organic media – all aligned to reach our core target audiences at different stages of their journey.

We’ll share content that fits each platform or channel, work with authentic voices to share their experience of Scotland, and team up with partners to enhance our impact and amplify how and where Scotland’s story is shared. This way, Scotland’s story is told in ways that truly connect and spark the desire to experience it in person.

Multi-touchpoint approach

We’ll connect with visitors across digital, social, video, TV, radio, and print through coordinated marketing activity.
Authentic storytelling

We’ll work with celebrity talent, creators, and influencers to share real experiences of their visit to Scotland.
Platform-first content

We’ll create tailored content for each channel, designed around our key audiences.

This includes premium editorial, content hubs, podcasts, audio ads, social and YouTube videos, and e-newsletters.
Extending the reach

Partner-led social activity and high-impact display advertising will help amplify our message.
Integrated activity

PR, email, visitscotland.com, and organic social media will build on this, strengthening reach and engagement.

To support this activity, dedicated campaigns to promote international connectivity and lesser-known destinations, as well as those with capacity to welcome visitors over the autumn and winter months will run.

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.

Domestic consumer marketing

Reinvigorating domestic tourism remains a top priority, and our marketing efforts lie at the heart of this. We want to inspire both locals and visitors to explore Scotland year-round with a particular focus on the off season (October through to Easter).

The UK market is vital, not just for the number of visitors and the value of their spend in Scotland, but for the resilience and sustainability it brings to the sector and the wider visitor economy.

We want to work closely with industry to identify areas for promotion, encouraging visitors to explore lesser-known regions of Scotland. This will help people discover new favourite places while supporting communities that are ready to welcome them.

Activity will:

Encourage

Encourage day trips, short breaks, and holidays across all regions of Scotland – throughout every season.
Celebrate

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

Inspiring 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

Activity commenced in September. It includes:

Core PR activity pitching the latest news and story ideas, with Scottish media targeted with short-lead listicle-style content, while UK national media will be targeted with trend-based pitches.
A curated programme of media visits will showcase autumn and winter in Scotland across a massive range of travel and lifestyle media. These include Nat Geo Traveller UK, The Times, and BBC Countryfile.
Online Travel Agent partnerships including Tripadvisor and Expedia
Media partner collaborations such as Metro, STV, Channel 4 and News UK

National partnerships with LNER, Avanti, Historic Environment Scotland and Caledonian Sleeper
Showcasing a breadth of regions and sectors, seasonal experiences, and ease of access to and around Scotland across our owned channels including visitscotland.com, email marketing to our 800,000 subscribers, and social media with 4.2 million followers.
Influencers and content creators will create authentic, themed content to amplify the seasonal messaging.

Examples of imagery and Expedia partnership activity

International marketing

We’re focused on attracting more international visitors to Scotland for off-season visits as well as 2026 trips. These visitors tend to stay longer, spend more, and travel more widely, which helps support the opportunity for growth and regional spread.

North America has played a big part in Scotland’s tourism recovery after COVID, but it’s important not to rely on just one market. At a time when the domestic visitor market is challenging, direct flights from overseas can bring in valuable visitors for short breaks during shoulder and off-season times.

We’ll work with industry to shape autumn and winter experiences that are sustainable, easy to book, and better aligned with what visitors are looking for. This sits as part of our end-to-end marketing approach – developing the right products, opening routes to market, and promoting Scotland as a must-visit, must-return destination throughout the year.

Consumer

Our consumer activity will:

promote Scotland’s year-round accessibility and direct flight connections
build demand for off-season breaks from international visitors
share the benefits of visiting in autumn, winter, and early spring with our travel partners
position autumn and winter in Scotland as the perfect time to slow down and get cosy
celebrate Scotland as a warm, welcoming destination throughout the year
showcase the rich variety of experiences Scotland offers for every type of traveller
encourage city breaks that combine culture with easy access to nature

Key activity

Activity commenced in September. It includes:

A curated programme of media visits will showcase autumn and winter in Scotland across a massive range of travel and lifestyle media. These include Die Zeit (Germany), Challenges Magazine (France), North America Autumn group visit and Virtuoso (US).
Media partner collaborations such as NBC (US)
Influencers will create authentic, themed content to amplify the seasonal messaging
Online Travel Agent partnerships including Expedia (US), Tripadvisor (France and Germany) and Skyscanner (US, France and Germany) focusing on direct route connectivity during autumn and winter
Partnerships with DFDS (Germany) and Caledonian Sleeper (US)
All of which is supported through our programme of owned and earned activity (i.e. PR, visitscotland.com, social media and email marketing)

Intermediary marketing

Our activity will:

share the benefits of visiting in autumn and winter with our travel partners to create demand for year-round breaks from international markets
partner with travel partners and airlines to boost promotion of Scotland routes during autumn and winter
support new direct routes from international markets, bringing higher-spending visitors for short breaks in the quieter seasons
build on our strong relationships with airlines and airports, in each market where new routes are already being explored

Key activity

Activity commenced in September. It includes:

A dedicated page on our travel trade website with specific autumn and winter content such as a supplier directory with new trade-ready experiences, itineraries and marketing content to share with clients
A monthly e-newsletter on autumn and winter content and our “what’s new” PR sent to our database of global travel trade subscribers
Key account management of key travel intermediaries, who make the contracting decisions for travel programmes, driving responsible, new autumn/winter and extended year-round itineraries into Scotland
We work with Scottish businesses, especially those new to working with the travel trade, to help them become trade-ready and shape their pitch as a year-round product
We bring Scottish businesses together and represent Scotland at trade shows such as Destination Britain North America, International & French Travel Market, Global European Marketplace and WTM London
We host Business Development Missions that connect Scottish tourism businesses with travel partners in key leisure markets. Coming up, we have missions to London for the North America and Australia, China and East Asian markets. We will also travel to Germany and China, with Scottish industry partners, for our in-market business development missions

Autumn and winter marketing activities 2025-2026

In this article:

Our approach

How we’ll reach our visitors

Multi-touchpoint approach

Authentic storytelling

Platform-first content

Extending the reach

Integrated activity