The Scottish Highlands is set to benefit from the continuing trend for Brits to holiday in the UK. Early good weather around Easter, combined with the additional bank holiday, meant that the tourist season in the Highlands got off to a good start. Bookings slowed since, but the fact that the Highlands has just come top of a survey of UK staycation destinations, has given tourism businesses a reason for optimism.
The survey, carried out by Travelodge, had the Highlands as the number one destination for British people planning to holiday in the UK, London was second, followed by Edinburgh, Blackpool and Manchester. The Peaks and the Lakes were next, followed by Cornwall.
Commenting on the survey, Scott Armstrong, regional director of VisitScotland for the Highlands, said: “Scotland’s a very popular destination and even within Scotland the Highlands and Islands is probably the most popular part of Scotland.
“So all the indications we’ve got are the staycation effect should still be around for 2011, all the economic conditions which led to the staycation effect in the first place are still here this year.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’re going to get a good number of UK people coming to the Highlands – and in fact we’re very encouraged by the number of Scots that are holidaying within Scotland.”