April 2022

April 2022

Our quarterly business monitor is designed to gather industry feedback on recent business performance and provide a look ahead to the short, medium and long term.

We launched the latest wave in early April, looking back at the period January to March 2022. Some of the highlights are listed below and you can read the full findings in the link at the bottom of this page.

 

Past Quarter (Jan-Mar 2022)

Overall, trading for January to March painted a more positive picture than the previous business monitor wave, with quite a number of respondents stating that visitors from elsewhere in Scotland was about the same as they would normally expect at this time of year. As would probably be anticipated, the most selected option for overseas visitors remains "fewer than normal", however we have also seen some movement with an increase in those responding that they are seeing "about the same as normal" or "more than normal" visitor numbers from overseas.

Enquiries and Bookings for next 3 months (Apr-Jun), and beyond

The pipeline questions (next 3 months and 3 months+) also evidence some positive results, and follow a similar pattern in terms of the return of enquiries and bookings from visitors from elsewhere in Scotland, with other areas lagging at the moment.

Business optimism (3 months/12 months/24 months)

This third wave saw the highest levels of optimism yet, As would be predicted, the longer-term view (next 24 months) attracted greatest levels of optimism, but was very closely followed by the next 3 months (Apr-Jun), with almost 6 in 10 responding businesses stating they are feeling optimistic. However several businesses highlighted costs as a barrier to trading and a concern they have about the future, both in terms of their own operating costs and also the increased cost of living to the consumer and how that will affect travel choices and decisions this year.

 

You can access a full summary of the results from our April business monitor below, and do look out for the next monitor survey in early July.

To discuss any of the findings, the monitor in general or any other aspect of insights at VisitAberdeenshire, contact insights@visitabdn.com.