Country Sports

Playing the field

Country sports in Scotland - primarily angling, shooting and deer stalking - injects an estimated £350 million per year into the tourism economy.

Trading on Scotland's reputation as the home of many country sports, this niche tourism segment can target a UK marketplace of over four million as well as tens of millions more from overseas. The USA alone contains around 38 million country sports participants.

With such a massive potential audience, the development of country sports tourism made a significant advances with the setting up in 2004 of the Country Sports Tourism Group Scotland (CSTG).

Since that time CSTG Scotland has commissioned research into the market, established priorities to realise the potential of country sports tourism and drawn up a road map to achieve the objective. The task ahead is challenging as country sports encompass such a wide variety of activities and demographics, including salmon fishing, coarse and sea angling, shooting and deer stalking. However, there is tangible evidence that country sports is becoming an ever more important part of the tourism landscape in Scotland, and real opportunities exist to enhance sustainable rural development.

For further details, please contact Alistair Rutherford or phone 01350 723226.