Overseas invasion makes Edinburgh king of the castles in visitor numbers

Published on Thursday 16 December 2010 16:34

Scotland's top tourist attractions have enjoyed their best ever summer season, with almost 2.5 million visitors flocking through their doors.

Edinburgh Castle remains the most popular attraction run by Historic Scotland, with numbers jumping by 30,000 this year.

September was a record-breaking month for the castle, with visitors up 12 per cent on the previous year. A total of 832,399 people headed for the capital attraction in the six months from the start of April.

Thousands more also visited Stirling and Urquhart castles, the next most popular attractions, which had more than half a million visitors between them.

Culture minister Fiona Hyslop said the sites performed "remarkably well" despite the recent economic downturn.

She added: "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."

There were 2,463,461 visitors through the doors of Historic Scotland ticketed properties during the six-month period, beating the agency's previous best performance three years ago by almost 5,000 visitors.

The rise comes despite the impact of the disruption caused by the massive ash cloud over the UK after volcanic eruptions in Iceland in April, when visitor attractions that draw a large international audience were hit.

Other Historic Scotland sites which saw visitor numbers increase were Melrose Abbey, Doune Castle and Inchcolm Abbey, in the Firth of Forth, which were all up by about 10 per cent. However, visitor numbers fell at Linlithgow Palace by more than 3,000 to 45,900, while Caerlaverock Castle was down by 9.4 per cent.

Ms Hyslop added: "To recover from such a situation (the ash cloud] 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."

Historic Scotland said the figures have been helped by an increase in travel trade visitors, membership and walk-up visits.

There was an increase in tourists from the Far East, and growth from continental and eastern Europe, which has been supported by a rise in the number of direct flights to Scotland.

Online ticket sales have also grown by more than 30 per cent over the first half of the year.

Stephen Duncan, Historic Scotland's head of commercial and visitor operations, said: "We're committed to offering visitors great value, as well as a memorable experience, and the success of a number of key initiatives proves the public response to that has been very positive."