Meeting of the Parliament 25 February 2026 [Draft]
Tourism contributes more than £4 billion to our economy each year, and we continue to support the sector to thrive. In the draft budget, we allocated VisitScotland almost £40 million a year until 2029. That includes £1 million over the next two financial years to continue growing direct international connectivity, for example.
I can give some examples of what is happening in tourism at the moment. We have worked to improve connectivity from key markets, securing many new routes and adding substantial new capacity, with almost 27,000 new seats on aircraft, which is good news. More overseas visitors visited Scotland in the first half of 2025 than visited anywhere in the United Kingdom outside of London and the south-east. In addition, the budget includes £4 million per year for the next three years for the rural tourism infrastructure fund.