What are the prospects for Scottish tourism in 2023?
16 May 2023
56 Degree Insight has recently published the findings from its Spring Scottish Tourism Index.
Conducted in late April, the 56 Degree Insight team ran the second of the 2023 quarterly waves of ‘Scotland’s Viewpoint’ - a representative sample of over 1,000 Scots conducted online. A major focus was holiday taking behaviours collected through the Scottish Tourism Index survey.
While the previous wave, conducted in late January, indicated a great deal of uncertainty about holiday taking in 2023, with restrictions around family finances resulting from the cost of living crisis a major factor, by the current wave, although these financial barriers remain in place, there are more grounds for optimism that 2023 might be at least as good as 2022 in terms of the staycation market.
Highlights from the findings include:
- 74% of Scots intend to take a holiday in 2023
- 1 in 5 Scots have taken a domestic home holiday this year already, with a further 23% claiming they are likely to do so. The two most popular destinations are the Highlands and Islands
- The recovery in trips to Europe continues with just over 4 in 10 likely to take a holiday there this year
- Travelling further afield continues to lag quite far behind with only 11% planning a long haul holiday