Scottish tourist attractions enjoyed an average 128% increase in visits in 2022, with sites linked Outlander seeing some of the biggest numbers.Outland fans who binged on the series throughout the Covid lockdowns helped boost tourism numbers in Scotland last year, it has been claimed.
The latest research by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) shows that visitors flooded back to Scotland from around the world in 2022.Scots attractions enjoyed an average 128% increase in visits - the highest of all the home nations - with sites associated with Outlander, the hit TV series based on the books by Diana Gabaldon, seeing some of the biggest spikes.
The increase in visits has been credited in part to so-called "set-jetters" desperate to see for themselves the places they saw on TV during lockdowns.
Fans returned to Doune Castle near Stirling in their droves when it reopened in June. The fortress, famed for its role as the fictional Castle Leoch in the series, saw a 1650% increase in visits from just 3171 in 2021 to 55,484 last year.Blackness Castle, the 15th-century fortress in West Lothian that provided the setting for the Fort William HQ of Black Jack Randall, had 58,168 visitors in 2022, up 359% from the previous year.
And Glasgow Cathedral, which doubled as L'Hopital Des Anges in Paris where Claire volunteers to work in the second series, saw a 658% rise in visits to 256,001 compared with 33,788 in 2021.Meanwhile, Glencoe Visitor Centre, whose surrounding landscape famously featured in Outlander's opening credits, also saw a higher-than-average increase after it welcomed 344,896 people, up 166% from the previous year.
Bernard Donoghue, Director of ALVA, said: "Overseas visitors, in particular, have come back to Scotland very quickly, especially from North America, near-Europe and Scandinavia. They have been going to the iconic attractions, mainly in the central belt but also to castles and attractions in the Highlands and Islands.
"One thing we are really seeing is the effects of lockdown TV binging resulting in people wanting to go to the actual places and stand on the actual spot. Outlander is a great example of this.
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