Downton and Bond fuel rise in Scottish visitors

Bond actor Daniel Craig. Picture: Reuters

JAMES Bond, Lego, Downton Abbey and Mary, Queen of Scots have been hailed for boosting Scottish tourism in 2013.They have been credited with fuelling bookings at visitor  attractions, which brought in 32 million people last year.

The Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions has reported an increase of 200,000 visitors, with the National Museum of Scotland – which hosted the biggest-ever exhibition devoted to Mary, Queen of Scots – the busiest in the country, with  1.76 million visitors.

Among the best-performing sites were Paisley Museum, which saw its numbers increase by 70 per cent thanks to a Lego exhibition.

Inveraray Castle reported a  13 per cent rise in visitors after  it featured in hit TV drama Downton Abbey.

The National Trust for Scotland’s site at Glencoe, one of the locations used for the most recent James Bond film, Skyfall, also saw its visitor numbers rise by more than a third.

Jousting tournaments at  Linlithgow Palace were credited with boosting visitor numbers there by nearly 20 per cent.