Scotland’s islands continue to be a top destination, with unmatched beauty and landscapes, wildlife and adventure, and food and drink being just some of the reasons that visitors mention influences their choice.
In recent years, our islands have faced unique challenges impacting not only visitors but residents and businesses. Our industry teams work closely to support our islands partners and businesses on these issues and our marketing teams continue to promote our islands with positive messaging, encouraging and reminding visitors that our islands are an unmissable part of a visit to Scotland.
Take a look at how we've been delivering this activity as well as advice on how to create content that excites and inspires potential visitors to make an island stop on their trip to Scotland.
In 2023, we commissioned the Scotland Visitor Survey to gather insight on visitor attitudes and behaviours. The survey explores why visitors take a holiday or short break in Scotland and how they rate their experiences when here.
As well as Scotland-wide results, insights were broken down by region to help businesses understand their visitors in more detail. Take a look at our regional factsheets and find out about visitor experiences on our islands.
Our visitscotland.com website is the primary source of visitor information for Scotland, full of destination ideas, travel itineraries and trip inspiration. Between August 2023 and 2024, the website was visited by over 8 million users.
This year, new content has been added to our website featuring the islands. Our existing content such as blogs and listicles continue to be monitored to ensure information is up-to-date, accurate and aligns with any visitor management messages specific to the region. As well as inspirational pages for each island region, read some of the recent and updated blogs featuring the islands.
This page allows visitors to find out more about specific islands or be inspired through ideas for unique experiences, island hopping itineraries and upcoming events.
In this guide, experts share their views on what to see, how to watch wildlife responsibly and top spots for wildlife spotting including Mull, Outer Hebrides and Shetland.
This article picks up some of the beaches, lochs and castles that make Scotland one of the most beautiful countries to visit featuring Orkney, North Uist, Iona, Barra, Skye, Staffa and Jura.
To help visitors plan the ultimate Scottish island holiday, this article includes handy guidance and the benefits of visiting off-season, as well as top recommendations on visitor experiences off-the-beaten-track.
Our global PR team work with targeted media in key markets around the world to encourage potential visitors to choose Scotland as their next destination. From newspaper and magazine features to travel documentaries and online travel guides, our team showcase the best that Scotland has to offer.
We've shared just some of the coverage the team has secured this year to showcase Scotland’s islands as well as their advice on what makes a good story that press and media will want to share.
Media are always interested in new stories that haven't been told before or stories that align with current trending topics.
Consider how your story can connect with viewers/readers or influence their decision on where to travel to.
Many publications and media outlets will have expert writers and journalists for specific sectors e.g. food and drink. Consider how your story could be pitched for certain sectors or topics.
If your business or product is quirky and unusual, such as something that can only be found in Scotland, a hidden gem or in an off-the-beaten-track location, this can be a great hook for media.
Capturing island magic on social media
Across our four main consumer social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X) our posts reach millions of people from all over the world. The islands feature regularly through a mixture of image and video content. Some of our most popular content has included:
Interested to enhance your own social media content and channels?
Visit the following links to find out how we choose what content to share on our social media channels and tips on how to improve your own social media presence.