Published on : Friday, January 18, 2019
In that period, spending by European visitors in Scotland increased at the same time, growing by 7%, from £1.08 billion to £1.15 billion.
Culture and tourism secretary Fiona Hyslop informed that overseas visitors are a “huge asset”.
Also, she said that the Scottish Government will keep no stones unturned to make sure that European visitors can carry on traveling to Scotland freely regardless of the challenges posed by Brexit.
There were around 2.26 million visitors from Europe in the year to the end of September 2018.
Statistics from the Office for National Statistics pointed out that a 14.3% increase in overseas overnight visits to Scotland, which increased from 3.1 to 3.5 million over that period.
There was a 3.3% rise in international tourism expenditure in Scotland, which rose from £2.18 to £2.25 billion. Ms Hyslop, said: “I am pleased that Scotland’s tourism industry continues to perform strongly, despite the challenges posed by Brexit.”
She added: “Our tourism industry is of vital importance to the Scottish economy.
“As visitors continue to come to Scotland, spending more time in the country and travelling to more destinations, this is a welcome boost for tourism businesses across all of Scotland.”
“European and international visitors are a huge asset to our tourism sector, economy and wider wellbeing.”
“As set out in our recent discussion paper, all the scenarios point to Brexit – and the end of free movement of people – having a damaging effect on the recruitment and retention of EU staff in the tourism sector.”