Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism in Scotland

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Overall Impacts: Table 52 gives the following overall impact estimates from nature-based tourism in Scotland (rounded): Total Visitor Spend attributable to nature-based tourism: £1.6 billion Associated FTEs: 45,000 Associated Income from Employment: £0.9 billion Total Visitor Spend attributable to nature-based tourism net of displacement: £1.4 billion Associated FTEs: 39,000 Associated Income from Employment: £0.8 billion 87
14 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS 14.1 Improve data collection and analysis Existing tourism surveys and data collection methods do not provide a measure of the proportion of visitors who come to Scotland motivated principally by its nature – although there are many reports and surveys (as this report shows) that highlight the importance of the natural heritage to Scottish tourism. This study has utilised existing data to their full extent. New data is required for more accurate assessments. VisitScotland is planning a major national visitor survey in 2010, subject to agreement on European funding. Furthermore as this study shows, many nature based tourism activities, such as watersports, require technical equipment and training, but an appropriate proportion of this related expenditure is not normally attributed to the natural heritage. For example, the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA) canvassed the opinions of around 3,500 outdoor consumers across the UK. Their research revealed that despite the economic downturn, 54% of core consumers do not intend to reduce their spending on outdoor products and only 13% will cut back (33% are undecided) (OIA ,2009). Recommendation 1: There is a need to improve data that would enable more exact analysis of: • the importance of the natural heritage (and different aspects of this) in encouraging visitors to holiday in Scotland; • the wider economic contribution to Scotland’s economy of nature based tourism potentially including benefits from improved health and wellbeing, as well as expenditures on special vehicles, boats, technical equipment, outdoor clothing, books, tuition in outdoor pursuits, etc. 14.2 Establish norms and consistent methodologies There is great inconsistency in how economic impacts were addressed in the different studies that we assessed for this report. Some norms, ratios and assumptions appear broadly correct, but others are clearly wrong. In some cases, this will have been due to the inexperience of researchers, failure to apply reality checks to findings, and/or noneconomists attempting economic analysis. Recommendation 2: There is a need to establish: • common research methodologies, especially amongst public agencies; • norms for economic impact ratios – including ratios for visitor expenditure to employment generated, GVA to employment generated, differing ratios for Scotland and regions within Scotland, etc. 14.3 Improve the estimation of net employment impact Having used appropriate ratios to convert visitor expenditure into FTEs, it is important to allow for the additionality of an activity and the displacement that might arise within 88
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Scottish Natural Heritage Commissio
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COMMISSIONED REPORT Summary Assessi
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7 CYCLING 45 7.1 Mountain biking 45
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List of Tables Page Table 1 - Natur
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1.3 Nature-based tourism For the pu
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market and accounts for 83% of tour
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expenditure during these trips was
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nature site • . Were this spend t
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Team members already held many rele
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2.3.2 Assessing employment and inco
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• Common resources, which are use
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4 FIELD SPORTS The findings from th
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4.2 Deer management The Contributio
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Table 11 - Deer Management in Scotl
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• Sea angling questions incorpora
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4.6 Other studies • The trips mos
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3. The Economic Impact of Game and
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5 WILDLIFE WATCHING 5.1 Wildlife to
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These impacts appear to us to be ov
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Wildlife watching Substantial but n
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• Abseiling - allows safe descent
Page 43 and 44: Client: HIE, SNH and VisitScotland
Page 45 and 46: those who said they were walking al
Page 47 and 48: oute was estimated to be in the reg
Page 49 and 50: participants, though in terms of vo
Page 51 and 52: Visit Scotland (2009) provides a fi
Page 53 and 54: This evaluation assessed the ultima
Page 55 and 56: For these motivational reasons, Gre
Page 57 and 58: 8 HORSE RIDING 8.1 Equestrian sport
Page 59 and 60: 9 WATERSPORTS Some watersports can
Page 61 and 62: Watersports are defined in this rep
Page 63 and 64: The methodology resulted in small s
Page 65 and 66: 10 NATURE-RELATED SITES AND FACILIT
Page 67 and 68: Forest Table 29 - Mean spend per tr
Page 69 and 70: Scotland’s canals: the economic e
Page 71 and 72: once displacement is allowed for -
Page 73 and 74: explore the issues they saw as bein
Page 75 and 76: Recent visitor surveys in Orkney (A
Page 77 and 78: Table 45 - UK visitor activities un
Page 79 and 80: 12 THE NATURAL HERITAGE IN SCOTLAND
Page 81 and 82: 12.4 International marketing Intern
Page 83 and 84: Scotland’s NNR Magical Places Ama
Page 85 and 86: 13 PAN-SCOTLAND ANALYSIS 13.1 Reaso
Page 87 and 88: Table 49 - Value of tourism outside
Page 89 and 90: The total of which this contributio
Page 91 and 92: Similarly, it is not possible to sp
Page 93: Table 52 - Estimated Impacts by act
Page 97 and 98: Recommendation 4: It would be desir
Page 99 and 100: George Street Research and Jones Ec
Page 101 and 102: Press and Journal. 2010. Tourists g
Page 103 and 104: Appendix A: Categories of Natural H
Page 105 and 106: • (Mixed - 19%) The types of walk
Page 107 and 108: Cycling Segments Scott Porter’s 2
Page 109 and 110: aqua / snorkelling) or on longer ho
Page 111 and 112: Appendix B - Methodological Notes 1
Page 113: www.snh.gov.uk © Scottish Natural
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Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism in Scotland

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