Tourism in Scotland

Blaenavon

Blenheim Palace

Canterbury

Gwynedd Castles

Welsh Slate

City of Bath

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

Derwent Valley Mills

Dorset and East Devon Coast

Durham

Frontiers of the Roman Empire

Giant's Causeway

Heart of Neolithic Orkney

Ironbridge Gorge

New Lanark

Old and New Towns of Edinburgh

Pontcysyllte

St Kilda

Saltaire

    Stonehenge

Studley Royal Park

London

Forth Bridge

Lake District

Jodrell Bank

Flow Country

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The World Heritage Sites of the United Kingdom: cultural sites marked red, natural sites marked green, mixed site (St Kilda) marked blue. Names are abridged to fit on the map. Greater London is home to the cultural sites of Maritime Greenwich, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Tower of London, and Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey including Saint Margaret's Church.

Scotland is a well-developed tourist destination, with tourism generally being responsible for sustaining 200,000 jobs mainly in the service sector, with tourist spending averaging at £4bn per year.^[1] In 2013, for example, UK visitors made 18.5 million visits to Scotland, staying 64.5 million nights and spending £3.7bn. In contrast, overseas residents made 1.58 million visits to Scotland, staying 15 million nights and spending £806m. In terms of overseas visitors, those from the United States made up 24% of visits to Scotland, with the United States being the largest source of overseas visitors, and Germany (9%), France (8%), Canada (7%) and Australia (6%), following behind.^[2]

Scotland is generally seen as a destination with beautiful scenery combined with thousands of historic sites and attractions.^[3] These include prehistoric stone circles, standing stones and burial chambers, and various Bronze Age, Iron Age and Stone Age remains. There are many historic castles, houses, and battlegrounds, ruins and museums. Many people are drawn by the culture of Scotland.

The main tourist season is generally from April to October. In addition to these factors, the national tourist agency, VisitScotland, have deployed a strategy of niche marketing, aimed at exploiting, amongst other things, Scotland's strengths in golf, fishing and food and drink tourism.