Jubilee effect boosts Scottish visitors

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee has boosted the number of visitors coming to Scotland’s major tourist attractions, with Edinburgh Castle recording the highest number of people over the five-day holiday period.

Historic Scotland recorded 84,643 people visiting its sites over the jubilee weekend. Edinburgh Castle attracted 30,769 visitors – a new record for June when more than 7,000 people came to the castle on two separate days.

A total of 10,166 visitors went to Stirling Castle over the weekend, up 14 per cent on the same bank holiday weekend last year.

Edinburgh Castle also retained its status as the most popular visitor attraction in Scotland last year in what the agency described as a record-breaking period for its properties, which saw footfall and income soaring.

Figures released yesterday show a total of 1,314,975 people visited Edinburgh Castle during 2011-12 – up 10 per cent on the year before.

In second place was Stirling Castle which, after a £12 million restoration, saw a 17 per cent increase in visitor numbers. Urquhart Castle was ranked third with visitor numbers rising 10 per cent to 317,811.

Fiona Hyslop MSP, culture and external affairs minister, said one of the key factors was better interpretation of Scottish history such as Stirling Castle had undertaken.

“These statistics speak for themselves and show Scotland’s historic visitor attractions continue to play a vital role in the tourism industry and wider economy.

“Many visitors come to Scotland to experience our rich, diverse and colourful history and Historic Scotland’s properties provide them with a unique experience to see our history up close.

“The rise in income is welcomed as it allows Historic Scotland to continue reinvesting in the historic environment and the visitor experience. While we have seen major improvements in areas such as the retail offering, what has also been key has been the continued improvements in the interpretation of these sites such as the major investment at Stirling.”

Ronnie Cramond, former chairman of the Scottish Mu-seums Council, said he believed an increasing awareness of Scottish identity was helping boost visitor numbers.

“We’ve had devolution and our own Scottish Parliament, the opening of the Museum of Scotland, and various programmes on television covering Scottish history. I believe a lot of the interest dates back to the flood of excellent history books following TC Smout’s A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, published in 1969. What this showed was an enormous increase in people’s wish to learn about Scottish history.”

Mr Cramond added: “Even a film like Braveheart, which took a lot of liberties with history, although its main theme was correct that William Wallace was a freedom fighter, got people interested in the subject.”

Despite the increases across visitor sites, there was a 4 per cent drop in income to £414,385 from corporate events as companies tightened their belts.