Year of Food & Drink Scotland 2015

2014 has been a fantastic year for Scotland and the benefits are being witnessed by our tourism industry.

Not only did the Commonwealth Games, the year of Homecoming and the Ryder Cup provide a spectacle on the international stage, it also brought billions of pounds of revenue in for the Scottish economy, and as a consequence – the North East.

The latest figures show that tourism spending increased sharply between July 2013 and June 2014 – with the Commonwealth Games providing a massive boost over the summer. The increase amounts to £4.6bn, equating to six per cent, and tourism from the Commonwealth Games was worth £282m.

The 2014 Games are considered to be the most successful ever, and the exposure that Scotland received as a tourist destination cannot be underestimated, and hopefully be felt for many years to come.

The Commonwealth Games Visitor Impact Study’s interim report states that day visitors to the Games spent a total of £66 million, and overnight visitors parted with a total of £216 million.

The economic impact of the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles is currently being evaluated post-event by independent researchers at the Sport Industry Research Centre’s at Sheffield Hallam University. The economic impact study will estimate the event’s overall economic impact and capture the impacts on tourism, among other things, on what is considered to be the “home of golf”.

While the tourism of our small country punches well above its weight, even more jobs could be created and the economy boosted even further with the right kind of support. One way of doing this would be to have the power to set the rate of Air Passenger Duty devolved to Scotland as a matter of urgency. As this is one of the proposals set out by the Smith Commission it is hoped that this will now be granted sooner rather than later.

In 2013, visitor expenditure was around £9 billion – made up of overnight visitors of £4.6 billion and by day visitors of £4.6 billion – and is of vital importance to the Scottish economy.

The Year of Homecoming 2014 highlighted Scotland’s greatest assets and built on Homecoming 2009 which delivered more than £53.7m to the economy, and it is still to be assessed how much of an impact this latest tourism drive has had.

Next year Scotland celebrates the Year of Food and Drink 2015. Celebrating the produce of the country is something that we can all appreciate and enjoy from top class seafood from the North East such as Cullen Skink, and Aberdeen Angus beef to Stornoway Black Pudding and Arbroath Smokies - an unparalleled availability of top quality seafood, and meat, as well as high quality fresh fruit and vegetables. If the world outside Scotland doesn’t know about the fantastic mouth-watering dishes that are distinctive to this country, it is hoped they will find out as part of next year’s celebrations and organised events.

Spending by tourists in Scotland generates £10 billion of economic activity in the Scottish supply chain and contributes £5 billion to Scottish GDP, representing just under five per cent of total Scottish GDP.

This financial boost equates to jobs also. Employment in the tourism-related industries sector (as measured by the Scottish Government’s Tourism Growth Sector) in Scotland was 211,200 in 2013 – which amounted to around 8.5 per cent of employment in Scotland.

Scotland offers a world-class tourism experience and this is now being recognised around the world to the benefit of those at home and abroad.