New plan for making domestic tourism across Scotland and the UK return to pre-pandemic levels

Published on : Monday, June 14, 2021

A new rail pass and vouchers for popular tourist attractions are part of a plan to make domestic tourism across Scotland and the whole of UK to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2022 and international tourism by 2023.

A rail pass for “staycationers” will be launched later this year, which would make it easier and more sustainable for domestic tourists to travel within the UK.

A £10 million voucher scheme will be launched by The National Lottery this autumn to promote trips outside of the peak summer season. Players will get the chance to claim vouchers to cash in at tourist attractions across the UK between September 2021 and March 2022.

There will be a new focus on technology and data. The UK Government will look into how tourism data collected at the border can help in assisting the sector and create a tourism data hub for providing the sector with right to use robust, accessible and timely data. The hub would help in tracking consumer trends in travel, like the growth in “active tourism” like water sports and hiking, and booking of sustainable tourism experiences.

The UK Government will develop a Sustainable Tourism Plan later this year to bring the UK at the forefront of the global discussion on sustainable travel.

In 2019, Scotland welcomed almost 3.5 million inbound visitors who spent £2.5 billion, helping secure the UK’s position in the top five countries globally concerning inbound visitor spending.

The UK Government has, however, worked unfalteringly over the past year to defend jobs and businesses in Scotland’s tourism, hospitality and leisure sectors, with the furlough scheme, self-employed income support scheme and VAT cuts.