Growth In Tourism ‘Postive Step Forward’ For Dumfries And Galloway

New figures from The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions which highlighted a growth in tourism across the Region are as ‘a clear and positive step forward’.

The report released yesterday (Monday 27 March) details the largest visitor attractions in the UK and showed a huge 15.6% increase in visitors to Scottish attractions. Across the UK the national average was 7.2% increase.

2016 was a record year for Scottish tourism.

The report detailed the top 250 visitor attractions across the UK had an incredible 9 attractions from the south of Scotland making the list.

They are:

133 Culzean Castle and Country Park (209,710 visitors, fall of -5.6% from previous year)
157 Burns Birthplace Museum (140,528 visitors, 28.6% rise)
183 National Museum of Flight (88,274 visitors, 15% rise)
200 Melrose Abbey (52,073 visitors, 9% rise)
212 Tantallon Castle (42,708 visitors, 2% rise)
215 Caerlaverock Castle (35,633 visitors, 7% rise) Dumfries and Galloway
216 Dawyck Botanic Garden (34,319 visitors, 1.6% rise)
223 Brodick Castle and Country Park (27,896 visitors, 12.9% rise)
228 Logan Botanic Garden (22,890 visitors, 2% rise) Dumfries and Galloway

Scotland’s highest placed attraction was the National Museum of Scotland which attracted 1.8 million people in 2016.

Discussing the report South of Scotland MSP and Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Economy Colin Smyth MSP who said:

“This report highlights two clear issues about tourism in Scotland. The first being that local attractions can and have shown to be a hugely important part of the offer to attract tourists to Scotland and secondly if promoted as well as attractions in the big cities, they could become even more significant pillars of the local economy.

The report shows that local attractions in the South of Scotland are punching above their weight and able to compete with some of the ‘big attractions’ despite clearly having fewer resource.

I welcome these figures as it shows the work done by the local councils and VisitScotland is making a difference. But we cannot be complacent. More needs to be done to ensure that visitors look to the south as often as they look to the Highlands and Islands or big cities when they are visiting Scotland.

We clearly have a positive range of good visitor attractions . We just need to fully market them”

For a full breakdown of all the results please visit: https://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=607