Tourism: facts and figures

Tourism is - and will remain - a major plank of the economy in the Highlands and Islands and in Scotland as a whole.

As an industry, tourism is worth £4.1 billion per year to the Scottish economy (5 per cent of GDP), with estimates predicting this economic value to grow to £6.0 billion by 2015. In terms of employment, Scottish tourism has created jobs for an estimated 210,000 people in 20,000 diverse businesses, nine per cent of the total workforce (13 per cent in the Highlands).

In fact, tourism pays the wages of more people than the oil, gas and whisky industries combined. The importance of tourism cannot be understated. So here are some quick key tourism facts and stats about the Highlands and Islands, Scotland,  e-business and other quick facts about tourism.