Luxury tourism businesses booked out by Scots tourists desperate for a break

High end self catering and luxury glamping destinations in Scotland are seeing increased demand as tourists splash out on staycations as their only holiday of the year.

Rural, self contained cottages with top-end facilities and treetop glamping experiences costing up to £200 a night are already fully booked for the summer and the months beyond as people look to isolate themselves as the Scottish tourist industry begins to open up.

Single families are booking large occupancy luxury mansions in the Highlands costing thousands of pounds a week to treat themselves after cancelling pricey overseas breaks, while glamping - luxury camping - sites have seen even their priciest breaks snapped up within days of opening booking following the lifting of Scottish Government restrictions. One self catering provider said a 14-person house with an outdoor pool on the Black Isle, which rents for £3,700 a week, was being let to single unit families looking for a week of luxury during their summer holiday.

Scots are splashing out on more pricey holidays at home.

Self catering properties have been allowed to welcome guests since 3 July, while the rest of the Scottish tourism industry is to open up next Wednesday.

Fiona Campbell, chief executive of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, said that bookings were three times higher than in 2019. Many providers already have bookings for next summer - after tourists cancelled this year’s reservations and deferred them into 2021.

She said: “We are seeing a massive spike in bookings. I could have filled my own two properties four times over. Obviously, everyone is desperate to get away and have a change of scenery, open space and fresh air and self catering accommodation is in a wonderful place to provide that.”

She added: “We are not seeing an issue with pricing. Given that many people aren’t going abroad and they would have spent a certain amount on flights and a hotel for their family holiday, that is a huge budget compared to a holiday cottage in Scotland.

“People are taking much bigger places and are not fussed about that - they just want to get away. A lot of the travel is from Scotland. There has been some nervousness about the rest of the UK travelling because of Nicola Sturgeon’s mention of the possibility of a quarantine.”

Around 70 per cent of the Scottish tourism market usually comes from people staycationing within the UK, although that is expected to be higher this year due to the lack of overseas tourists. Although Sturgeon has said she does not currently plan to quarantine visitors from the rest of the UK, the possibility has deterred some tourists from south of the border.

Professor John Lennon, director of the Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development at Glasgow’s Caledonian University, said that accommodation providers were seeing people book longer breaks due to staycation trips being their main summer holiday, rather than an additional visit.

He said: “During the halcyon days of 2019, people were pushing for short breaks or two or three nights, which are more expensive for accommodation providers. Now, people want to stay for longer. The pent-up demand is there and people are reserving weeks up to September and October and things are going very fast. Self catering is also seen as cheaper. While some people may have money saved from a cancelled overseas holiday, others are worried about the economic future, so it is both ends of the economic spectrum.”

He added: “Scotland has an urbanised population who are looking for rural breaks away, with health and clean air and nobody else around.”

Hotels, however, are not proving to be as popular and are generally operating at just 15 to 20 per cent occupancy, compared with a usual rate of 90 per cent at this time of year.

Lennon added: “People, with perhaps little medical reason for it, are seeing self catering as safer than hotels, which isn’t necessarily the case at all.”

Marc Crothall, chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, said: “Hotels, unfortunately, just aren’t seeing the levels of pick up that people might expect. Occupancy levels for July and August are still sitting at around 15 to 20 per cent, especially the bigger hotel groups. The smaller, rural spots have filled a bit more, but even there, there is a long way to go before they are even breaking even.”

He added: “As much as the message has got through that we need to staycation, it is not enough.”

The latest Covid-29 Consumer Sentiment Tracker by Visit Britain - including data from Visit Scotland - found that Scotland was the second most popular destination for post-Covid breaks by UK travellers. A total of 13 per cent of those surveyed who are planning a trip said they would like to travel north of the border this summer. A further 14 per cent said they would like to travel to Scotland after October.

The survey also found that ‘Countryside or village’ and ‘traditional coastal/seaside town’ are the two main destination types for those planning a trip between June and September.

Chris Greenwood, senior tourism insight manager at Visit Scotland, said that some high-end luxury hotels were also seeing a lot of interest, despite some facilities not being able to open due to virus regulations. Bookings at large hotels in Edinburgh are anecdotally beginning to see travellers returning, although not at the same pace as usual due to the cancellation of large events such as the Edinburgh festivals.

A study published by luxury tourism organisation ILTM this week found that 72 per cent of high-end travel agents worldwide anticipate a climb in bookings in three to nine months.

“The message that came out is the luxury market is easing and it is expected to rebound within a year,” Greenwood said. “Some facilities, like a spa or breakfast buffet, may well not be open, but what people are paying for is essentially serviced apartments.”

He said that the organisation’s website had seen huge interest in driving routes around Scotland, as well as self catering accommodation, especially in rural areas.

He said: “The first most visited page is the one with information on Covid-19 - people are obviously wanting to see what they will be allowed to do when. Then we have pages about driving routes, particularly the North Coast 500. Then after that, accommodation for self catering, such as houses, lodges and caravans.

“What we are seeing is a lot of discussion about ‘outdoors’, ‘beaches’ and ‘wild camping’. The theme very much seems to be people being outside, in self catering in rural areas, which is supported by the consumer sentiment research we have done.”

‘Our website crashed for the first time in years’

Wynne Bentley, owner of LHH Self Catering in Dingwall, says the 140 cottages she manages are almost fully booked until the end of September following unprecedented demand for a Scottish break.

She said: “Usually our larger houses, sleeping 14 or 16 people, are booked out by big groups of extended families, whereas this year, we’re finding a family of five are taking a large mansion for just them. They are not paying out for flights overseas and instead, are splashing out on a more expensive place here. Houses with swimming pools are particularly popular.”

“Our website crashed briefly for the first time in years, we’ve just had so many people trying to book.

She said: “We’re already very busy for next year as we moved forward 1,800 bookings which had to be cancelled this year, which is unheard of.Whether this is a one or two year thing remains to be seen, but I think it will open up people again to think about Scotland. Obviously if some people get a terrible week’s weather, they might say ‘right, back to France next year’, but it may open up a renewed appetite for holidaying in Scotland.”Alex Mitchell, owner of upscale glamping business Harvest Moon Holidays in East Lothian, has seen high demand for his beach cabins and treehouses at Tyninghame beach, which sell for up to £250 a night per treehouse at peak periods in the summer months.

He said: “We are completely booked up for July and August. We usually would be, so this year is no different, but there has definitely been more demand and we probably have a bigger waiting list this year. There doesn’t seem to be a fear factor, especially in our kind of holiday, which is very much outdoors. It is great that we’re booked up now, but it doesn’t make up for the 50 per cent of revenue we lost overall.

He said: “In the last couple of years, price sensitivity has been an issue, whereas this year, it is less of an issue and we’re finding even the most expensive tariffs - weekend stays in July and August - are hugely popular. People are just wanting away, they didn’t get away at Easter, so they just want a holiday.

“Normally, in the summer, we would see about 60 per cent from south of the border, to 40 per cent Scots and I would say it’s not too different - possibly slightly more Scots especially for the first couple of weeks.

“We have only had one group who have cancelled and that was because they are older people are they were shielding.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director