VisitScotland is celebrating 50 years of the Scottish tourism industry and its rise to one of Scotland’s most important industries.
We’ve created a timeline that takes us on a journey through the decades from the late 1960’s to the 2010’s with highlights from our key activity and tourism industry milestones. Take a look, reminisce and share your own stories on social media using #VSFifty.
We’ve had a look through our archives and unearthed some of the earliest efforts to sell Scotland to the world. One of our first brochures depicted a couple taking some snaps on a sunny day in Glen Coe and inside, most hotels and touring companies advertised with drawings rather than photography.
The bi-centenary of Sir Walter Scott’s birth was the focus of one of our first marketing campaigns with special publications produced, including 20,000 French brochures, signposts featuring Scott’s motif were erected, and a “Scott Trail” directing visitors to 20 places associated with the beloved writer was created.
Our marketing efforts were kicked up a notch as the 80s began and the colourful “Scotland’s For Me” campaign was launched to the world. We even managed to snag celebrities of the day to pop up in our TV adverts. Dallas actor Larry Hagman endorsed Scotland’s “finest tweeds and tartans”, golf legend Jack Nicklaus championed the Home of Golf and comedian Rod Hull, along with his trusty puppet Emu, were headed “over the rainbow” for a holiday in Scotland.
The beginning of the 90s saw a major push to get Scots holidaying in their own country and slogans like "Scotland. One visit is never enough" targeting visitors from England and Wales.
The Millennium brought the rebranding from Scottish Tourist Board to VisitScotland and an investment in niche marketing – with golf, gardens, walking, escapes wellbeing and roots on the agenda while encouraging Americans to “Explore the Past, and Glimpse the Future. At the close of the decade the first Homecoming motivated people with Scottish ancestry, as well as those who simply love Scotland, to “come home” and celebrate all things Scotland.
The rise of social media has led to a significant change in our marketing methods over the last decade. Campaigns now target digital channels as well as the traditional routes - a far cry from the two million brochures which kickstarted the world’s love affair with Scotland 50 years ago.
The Spirit of Scotland campaign gave birth to the popular #ScotSpirit hashtag in 2016, which has been shared over 250,000 times, and it was followed by Scotland Is Now – a global movement that marked another change in marketing as VisitScotland, the Scottish Government, Scottish Development International and Universities Scotland joined forces for the first time to put Scotland in the international spotlight and showcase the country’s world-leading assets to a global audience.
Over the last five decades tourism's value has gone from an estimated £100 million (£1.6 billion in today's money) to £11 billion and from employing 58,300 people to 206,00 people. There were 5.12 million people visiting Scotland in 1969 compared to 14.8 million today.
It means that while creating jobs and sustaining communities, tourism has also grown the economy by £9.4 billion since the statutory board was set up and given government backing to boost visitor numbers across the country.
The scale of the achievements and growth of Scotland’s tourism sector is down to the hard work and creative collaboration across a myriad of organisations, businesses and public agencies spanning half a century – so for that we say thank you.