Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism in Scotland

COMMISSIONED REPORT
Summary
Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism
in Scotland
Commissioned Report No. 398 (iBids 7286)
Contractor: Bryden, D.M., Westbrook, S.R., Burns, B., Taylor, W.A., and Anderson, S.
Year of publication: 2010
Background
The primary aim of this study was to establish an estimate of the economic contribution of
Scotland’s environment to the nation’s tourism economy. The report is based on existing
studies and uses raw material from some of the studies to calculate standardised impact
assessments. No new primary data collection was undertaken.
Main Findings
• Attributing value to nature based tourism is complex and no single report until now had
provided the total current value of economic output/activity generated by nature based
tourism activities, or quantified the level of jobs in the nature based tourism industry.
• The only practical approach to assessing the impacts of the different natural heritage
features and activities to Scotland’s tourism was to examine them individually.
Subsequently aggregating such impact estimates was not straightforward though, both
because of their inter-relationships in practice and because a “counterfactual scenario” of
Scotland without any of them would not be meaningful.
• Overall it is estimated that total visitor spending attributable to nature-based tourism per
year (rounded and after displacement is deducted) is £1.4 billion with 39,000 associated
FTE jobs. These are indicative rather than specific figures.
• Economic and employment impacts are also calculated for the activities and interests
given in the typology: wildlife watching, field sports, walking/mountaineering, snow
sports, cycling, water sports, horse riding, adventure activities, conservation work, other
specialist interests, and scenery. However, there is much less confidence in the accuracy
of some of these than of the overall figure due to the difficulty of accurately ascribing a
specific motivation for any individual trip.
For further information on this project contact:
Maren Ebeling
Tel: 01463 725000
For further information on the SNH Research & Technical Support Programme contact:
DSU (Policy & Advice Directorate), Scottish Natural Heritage, Great Glen House, Inverness, IV3 8NW.
Tel: 01463 725000 or pads@snh.gov.uk
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