Global travel continues to grow post-pandemic, and the return of international markets to Scotland has been very much in evidence. Visitors from the US have made a strong return to Scotland ahead of other areas of the UK and, with restrictions removed and more flights returning, we hear further reports of growing leisure travel demand from the Chinese and even the Australian markets.
It has been great to see Scottish tourism businesses keen to take advantage of these higher spending long haul visitors in particular, and increasingly recognising working with the travel trade as a way to access the opportunity. In fact 64% of international visitors to Britain use travel intermediaries to plan and book their package. And among long-haul travellers it’s as much as 73%, so working with travel intermediaries can be a very targeted and lucrative way to get your Scottish tourism offering out into market.
Travel intermediaries take various forms - be that tour operators or DMCs, traditional retail or online travel agents, even airlines’ own vacation companies - and they can operate very differently in different markets. But pick the right ones to work with and the benefits can go beyond higher yield visitors, to also helping you be more targeted in the ones you attract and in managing the flow of visitors how and when you want them.
Our Intermediary Marketing team works hard year-round to understand that complicated intermediary landscape, and to identify those operators, who we hope will have the best fit for Scotland and Scottish tourism businesses. This week in Aberdeen, we'll be welcoming 250 of them to our annual flagship travel trade event, VisitScotland Connect.
