Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism in Scotland

market and accounts for 83% of tourism visitors, who provide 67% of all tourism
expenditure in Scotland. Overseas visitors accounted for 17% of trips and 33% of
expenditure (staying on average longer).
In 2008, Scottish tourism supported 218,200 jobs (9.2% of the Scottish total),
contributed 5% of the Scottish economy’s GVA, and represented 11% of the Scottish
service sector economy (compared to 9% for the UK as a whole).
As illustrated by a wide range of reports, a very high proportion of visitors to Scotland
appreciate being somewhere with distinctive and special natural features – somewhere
dramatic and enduring – i.e. values associated with the nation’s natural heritage.
Without a natural heritage that is appealing to visitors, it is clear from visitor survey
data that Scotland would have very few tourist visitors from outside the country other
than people on business or visiting friends and relatives. In normal parlance, these
visits are less regarded as “tourism” than leisure day trips, and a tourism operator who
does not provide accommodation will tend to regard a day tripper’s spend as
equivalent to the spend by an overnight stay visitor.
The “tourism-related sector” (including hotels, restaurants and shops) is broader than
the tourism sector, since it benefits from expenditure by locals as well as tourists. It
can be easier to determine the size of the tourism-related sector than the tourism
sector, since impact does not need to be allocated between tourism spend and nontourism
spend.
In practice, studies often combine spend from day trips and overnight stays in
estimating tourist (or visitor) expenditure – although we have tried to distinguish the
separate impacts from these in our reviews of particular studies (where the data in the
studies allows this).
In addition to its natural heritage, visitors are attracted to Scotland for its historic
environment (e.g. castles), visitor attractions that are not nature-related (e.g.
distilleries), culture (e.g. traditional music), attendance at events (e.g. Highland
Games), indoor activities (e.g. sporting competitions), etc. Many such visits, however,
are generated because Scotland also has an outstanding natural heritage, and a
tourist might visit a castle one day and a nature site the next. Historic buildings like
castles are often part of the natural landscape, from the local stone they were built with
to their topographical location in a glen or above a river crossing. Also, activities such
as golf attract more visitors if venues are scenically attractive, and a typical tourist
golfer would be enthused by the prospect of seeing wildlife on or from the course.
Thus, the natural heritage is a setting for tourism in Scotland as well as being an
attractor. Differentiating the two might be of theoretical interest but, in practice, is not
possible with any precision.
1.5 Overview of nature based tourism in Scotland
In its Tourism Prospectus, VisitScotland (2007) makes the point that:
“Visitors do not primarily come to Scotland because they like the hotel bedrooms! They
do not come in order to drive up and down the roads or use the railways and airports.
Visitors to Scotland come for an experience that is rooted in our hills and glens, our
castles and towns, our history, our culture, our way of life and our people. Visitors
participate in any number of activities, pursue many different interests, see many
different places but they do so against a distinctive backdrop that is the country of
Scotland.”
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