Trade section

ScotlandWhisky was established to promote tourism to Scotland using its internationally recognised national drink: Whisky. This page has been designed to outline the opportunity that Whisky Tourism offers businesses bringing tourists to Scotland and those servicing tourists once here.

What size is the Scotch Whisky Tourism opportunity?

• Each year over one million tourists visit a Scotch whisky distillery, making distillery visits one of the most popular tourist attractions. 
•  Distillery visitor centres attract the most valuable customers, with the highest spend per head (£18.70 per person) . They also attract the greatest percentage of the high spending overseas market.
• Sales from Scotch whisky attractions are worth circa £22.4 million pounds to the Scottish Economy.

Why should you be interested? 

• Scotch whisky is the product, by far, most associated with Scotland
•  In 2005 the Henley Centre identified Whisky connoisseurship as one of its "easy areas of growth for Scottish tourism". It can only be claimed by Scotland and taps into the wider opportunity of educational based travel.
• If your business is based in Scotland, or sends people to Scotland you need to be offering tourists an excellent Scotch Whisky experience - they will be expecting it.

Who is behind the ScotlandWhisky?

The Scotch Whisky Tourism Initiative, now known as Scotlandwhisky, was launched in September 2003 by Jim Wallace MSP, the then Deputy First Minister, and Ian Good Chairman of the Scotch Whisky Association. The project is a partnership between the public and private sectors, with the aim of exploring where the Tourism and Scotch whisky industries can work together to realise mutual commercial benefits. It is supported by the Scotch Whisky Association, The Scotch Whisky Experience, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and VisitScotland.

 How can you get involved?