Castles and other historic attractions in Scotland have had record numbers of visitors over the past summer, giving Historic Scotland its best season on record.
From April 1 until September 30, 2,463,461 visitors went through the doors of a Historic Scotland ticketed property. This exceeds the agency’s previous best performance at this stage (2006-07) by almost 5,000 visitors.
Each of Historic Scotland’s top three sites, Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, experienced increased growth during this period.
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland’s number one paid-for tourist attraction, saw a particularly strong season, with September alone seeing a record-breaking month for visitors, up 12% on the previous year.
Minister for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said: “Scotland’s leading heritage attractions are performing remarkably well and I am delighted that Historic Scotland’s properties have recorded such excellent visitor numbers, in a challenging economic climate.
“These figures are testament to the world-class quality of the visitor experience that Scotland has to offer – and to the efforts of staff to promote the properties and to encourage and ensure visitors enjoy all that they represent and provide.
“These figures are particularly impressive given the widespread impact on the tourism industry of the ash cloud in April, with attractions that draw a large international audience most affected.
“To recover from such a situation so quickly and go on to experience a record-breaking season illustrates the hard work of all those in the sector and its continued importance in delivering for the wider tourism market and for Scotland.”
There has been an upward trend in tourists from the Far East, as well as sustained growth from continental and eastern Europe, which has been supported by an increase in the number of direct flights into Scotland.
Historic Scotland’s head of commercial and visitor operations Stephen Duncan said: “ “The success of a number of key initiatives prove that the public response to that has been very positive. Our Travel Trade products, such as Explorer Pass tickets, and web ticket sales have grown by more than 30% over the first half of the year compared with the same period last year.
“Our membership numbers remain at a high of 114,386, up 11% on last year. We’ve also recorded strong performances in several key commercial areas.
“For example, our latest weddings income figures are 6% ahead of last year and our retail takings were 5% above last year’s, so we are enjoying a strong performance across the board which we hope to build on for the second half of the year.”
Historic Scotland runs 78 ticketed visitor attractions in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle to the Neolithic village of Skara Brae on Orkney. For more details see http://www. historic-scotland.gov.uk
Historic Scotland has 345 outstanding historic properties and sites in its care.
These include Fort George, Linlithgow Palace, and the Border Abbeys, and Skara Brae.