Scottish tourism’s 2012 numbers look bad, as visitors dropped 4 percent

The full scale of the torrid times faced by Scottish tourism has emerged…value of the sector had slumped by almost £200 million in the space of a year – equivalent to more than £500,000 a day.

Around 600,000 fewer visitors came to Scotland throughout 2012 compared with the previous 12 months, according to Office for National Statistics…That represented a slump of around 4 per cent..Industry leaders have blamed the impact of the economic downturn, prolonged bad weather and competition from the London Olympics.

Visits from overseas were particularly badly affected, with the total number of trips down 5.3 per cent, to 2.2 million, and spending down 6.3 per cent, to £1.4 billion.

The value of the domestic tourism industry in Scotland was down 4.2 per cent, to £2.89bn, with the number of overnight stays dropping 4.6 per cent to 12.8 million