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Cairngorms National Park STEAM infographic - 2024

Cairngorms Nation­al Park STEAM Tour­ism Eco­nom­ic Impacts 2024 Year in Review Summary

The Vis­it­or Eco­nomy of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

This is a sum­mary of the annu­al tour­ism eco­nom­ic impact research under­taken for Cairngorms Nation­al Park for the cal­en­dar years 2013 – 2024. Out­puts in this report have been gen­er­ated using the Scot­tish Tour­ism Eco­nom­ic Activ­ity Mod­el (STEAM), owned and oper­ated by Glob­al Tour­ism Solu­tions (UK) Ltd.

COV­ID-19 / STL Registration Estim­ated tour­ism fig­ures through­out Scot­land appear to have returned to or sur­passed pre-Cov­id estim­ates for the first time. In some cases, com­puls­ory Short Term Let regis­tra­tion has caused changes in accom­mod­a­tion pro­vi­sion num­bers, which can in turn affect STEAM estimates.

2024 Key Statistics:

  • 2.5m tour­ism vis­its to Cairngorms Nation­al Park in 2024
  • 1.3m vis­its were made by vis­it­ors stay­ing with­in the area as part of a hol­i­day or short break, gen­er­at­ing 3.7 mil­lion nights in loc­al accommodation.
  • 4.8 mil­lion Vis­it­or Days and Nights gen­er­ated by Vis­it­ors in 2024
  • On aver­age, vis­it­ors stay­ing in the area spend 2.8 nights in the area and spend a total of £171 mil­lion on loc­al accommodation.
  • 1.2m tour­ism vis­its made by Day Visitors.
  • Day Vis­its to Cairngorms Nation­al Park gen­er­ated £75 mil­lion for the loc­al eco­nomy in 2024.
  • In total, stay­ing vis­it­ors gen­er­ate a total eco­nom­ic impact of £416 mil­lion for loc­al busi­nesses and communities.
  • A total of £491 mil­lion was gen­er­ated dir­ectly and indir­ectly with­in the loc­al eco­nomy through vis­it­or and tour­ism busi­ness expenditure.
  • Vis­it­or activ­ity and spend sup­ports more than 6,291 full time equi­val­ent jobs loc­ally.

Trends 2023 – 2024:

  • Eco­nom­ic Impact +2.7%
  • Vis­it­or Num­bers +12.6%
  • Total Vis­it­or Days and Nights 7.5%

Vis­it­or Types

Stay­ing Vis­it­ors encom­pass all tour­ists stay­ing overnight for at least one night in one of the fol­low­ing types of accommodation:

  • Ser­viced Accom­mod­a­tion — includ­ing Hotels, Guest Houses, B&Bs, Inns
  • Non-Ser­viced Accom­mod­a­tion – includ­ing Self-Cater­ing prop­er­ties such as Houses, Cot­tages, Chalets and Flats, as well as Camp­ing and Cara­van­ning, Hos­tels and Uni­ver­sity / Col­lege accommodation
  • Stay­ing with Friends and Rel­at­ives (SFR) – unpaid overnight accom­mod­a­tion with loc­al residents

Day Vis­it­ors vis­it­ing the area on a non-routine and non-reg­u­lar leis­ure day trip from a home or hol­i­day base.

2024 Break­down:

  • Stay­ing Vis­it­ors: 53% of Visits
  • Day Vis­it­ors: 47% of Visits

Vis­it­or Numbers

There were an estim­ated 2.5m tour­ism vis­its to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in 2024, up by 12.6% from the pre­vi­ous year, and also up 18.1% from estim­ated pre-cov­id levels repor­ted in 2019, par­tially due to increases in the ser­viced and non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion sectors.

In 2024, 1.3 vis­it­ors stayed in some sort of accom­mod­a­tion with­in the area. This sec­tor saw an increase of 19.3% when com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year and is now 27.8% above pre-cov­id levels. The ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion sec­tor, primar­ily com­prised of hotels, guest houses and B&Bs, saw a sig­ni­fic­ant increase of 18.2% over the last year, and is well above 2019 pre-cov­id levels. The much lar­ger non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion sec­tor was up sub­stan­tially by 22.8% on the pre­vi­ous year and is now also well above pre-cov­id estim­ates, par­tially due to an increase in non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion with­in the area. Day vis­it­ors through­out many loc­a­tions in the UK are just return­ing to pre-cov­id levels, espe­cially in rur­al and semi-rur­al loc­a­tions, so it is very encour­aging to see that day vis­it­ors were up by 5.7% on the pre­vi­ous year. This has had a pos­it­ive knock-on effect on total vis­it­or num­bers as a whole, as day vis­it­ors rep­res­ent 47% of vis­it­or num­bers to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Key Fig­ures: Vis­it­or Num­bers 2024

Met­ricVis­it­or Num­bersSer­vicedNon-Ser­vicedSFRAll Stay­ing Vis­it­orsDay Vis­it­orsAll Vis­it­ors
2024 (Mil­lions)M0.7930.4960.0331.3221.1612.484
2023 (Mil­lions)M0.6710.4040.0331.1081.0982.207
Change 23⁄24 (%)%+18.2+22.8+0.4+19.3+5.7+12.6
Share of Total (%)%31.920.01.353.246.8100.0

Vis­it­or Days

Vis­it­ors spent an estim­ated 4.8m days in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park dur­ing 2024. Vis­it­or days take into account mul­tiple stays. For example, if a fam­ily of five stay three nights, they will not only account for five vis­it­ors, but also fif­teen vis­it­or days. On aver­age, stay­ing vis­it­ors to the area stay 2.8 days.

Total stay­ing vis­it­ors accoun­ted for 3.7m vis­it­or days in 2024, an increase of 8.1% on the pre­vi­ous year, and are now 6.4% above 2019 pre-cov­id levels. The ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion sec­tor decreased slightly by ‑4.4% com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year (although num­bers of vis­it­ors stay­ing in ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion were up 18.2%); this ​‘more num­bers but less vis­it­or days’ is a pat­tern seen through­out the UK and we attrib­ute it to short­er stays due to the cur­rent eco­nom­ic cli­mate. The much lar­ger non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion sec­tor was up by 13.8% on the pre­vi­ous year, and is now well above pre-cov­id 2019 levels. As men­tioned before, day vis­it­ors to the area are up by 5.7% on the pre­vi­ous year, a very good res­ult when com­pared to oth­er areas, espe­cially oth­er rur­al ones.

Key Fig­ures: Vis­it­or Days 2024

Met­ricVis­it­or DaysSer­vicedNon-Ser­vicedSFRAll Stay­ing Vis­it­orsDay Vis­it­orsAll Vis­it­ors
2024 (Mil­lions)M0.9172.6040.1483.6691.1614.830
2023 (Mil­lions)M0.9602.2880.1473.3951.0984.493
Change 23⁄24 (%)%-4.4+13.8+0.4+8.1+5.7+7.5
Share of Total (%)%19.053.93.176.024.0100.0

Aver­age Length of Stay for Dif­fer­ent Vis­it­or Types: 2024

  • Day Vis­it­ors: 1.0 days
  • All Vis­it­ors: 1.9 days
  • Ser­viced Accom­mod­a­tion: 1.2 days
  • Stay­ing with Friends/​Relatives: 4.5 days
  • All Stay­ing Vis­it­ors: 2.8 days
  • Non-Ser­viced Accom­mod­a­tion: 5.3 days

Eco­nom­ic Impact

The value of tour­ism activ­ity in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park was estim­ated to be £491m in 2024, up by 11.5% on the pre­vi­ous year, and up by 15.1% (when indexed for infla­tion) when com­pared to pre-cov­id levels.

The total dir­ect eco­nom­ic impact com­prises the expendit­ure of vis­it­ors on goods and ser­vices, totalling £397m. Fur­ther to this, indir­ect and induced eco­nom­ic effects of loc­al busi­nesses and res­id­ents spend­ing tour­ism rev­en­ues loc­ally, were estim­ated to account for a fur­ther £94m, togeth­er totalling £491m. The largest vis­it­or spend­ing sec­tor by far was Accom­mod­a­tion (£171m), then Food & Drink (£76.2m), fol­lowed closely by Trans­port (£75.9m). The eco­nom­ic impact of the ser­viced sec­tor was up by 4.7% on the pre­vi­ous year and is 19.8% (indexed) above estim­ated 2019 pre-cov­id levels. The lar­ger non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion sec­tor, com­pris­ing self-cater­ing and some cara­van, camp­ing and tour­ing sites, was up 23.7% on 2023 and is 11.8% (indexed) above pre-cov­id estim­ates. In terms of com­par­is­on, the non-ser­viced sec­tor is more sea­son­al and has around four times more bed­spaces than the ser­viced sec­tor, but the ser­viced sec­tor has far more eco­nom­ic impact. Mean­while the day vis­it­or eco­nom­ic impact is up by 11.4% on the pre­vi­ous year but has less than a fifth of the eco­nom­ic impact of the stay­ing vis­it­or sector.

Eco­nom­ic Impact Cat­egory Definitions:

  • Accom­mod­a­tion: Pay­ments for overnight stays in accom­mod­a­tion, such as room rates, pitch fees and hire charges for non-ser­viced accommodation.
  • Recre­ation: Cov­er­ing expendit­ure on a wide range of leis­ure activ­it­ies such as museum, event, con­cert / theatre and attrac­tions attend­ance as well as sports par­ti­cip­a­tion and spectating.
  • Trans­port: Expendit­ure with­in the des­tin­a­tion on travel, includ­ing fuel and pub­lic trans­port tickets.
  • Food and Drink: Spend on eat­ing and drink­ing at res­taur­ants, cafes and oth­er ven­ues, takeaway food, snacks and groceries.
  • Shop­ping: What vis­it­ors spend on items includ­ing cloth­ing / jew­ellery, house­hold items, music / films / games, gifts and smal­ler items, books and maps, plants and garden items.
  • Indir­ect: The expendit­ure by loc­al tour­ism busi­nesses with­in the loc­al sup­ply chain.

Key Fig­ures: Eco­nom­ic Impact 2024

Met­ricEco­nom­ic ImpactSer­vicedNon-Ser­vicedSFRAll Stay­ing Vis­it­orsDay Vis­it­orsAll Vis­it­ors
2024 (£ Millions)£M242.830167.0075.848415.68575.187490.872
2023 (£ Millions)£M232.017135.0395.568372.62467.469440.093
Change 23⁄24 (%)%+4.7+23.7+5.0+11.6+11.4+11.5
Share of Total (%)%49.534.01.284.715.3100.0

Employ­ment Sup­por­ted by Tourism

The expendit­ure and activ­ity of vis­it­ors to Cairngorms Nation­al Park sup­por­ted a total of 6,291 Full-Time Equi­val­ent jobs (FTEs) in 2024; an increase of 3.2% on the year before.

Total employ­ment includes the jobs gen­er­ated by the expendit­ure of vis­it­ors on goods and ser­vices, totalling 5,225 FTEs, and the indir­ect and induced employ­ment sup­por­ted through loc­al busi­nesses and res­id­ents spend­ing tour­ism rev­en­ues loc­ally, account­ing for a fur­ther 1,066 FTEs. The Accom­mod­a­tion sec­tor is by far the largest employ­ment sec­tor sup­por­ted by tour­ism activ­ity, account­ing for an estim­ated 2,679 FTEs, fol­lowed by Food & Drink at 907 FTEs, then Trans­port at 777 FTEs fol­lowed by Shop­ping at 507 FTEs.

Total FTEs Sup­por­ted: 6,291

Employ­ment Sup­por­ted by Tour­ism: Full-Time Equi­val­ents (FTEs) by Type 2024

Employ­ment Sup­por­ted by Sec­tor 2024Accom­mod­a­tionFood & DrinkRecre­ationShop­pingTrans­portTotal Dir­ectIndir­ect and InducedTotal
Totals2,6799073555077775,2251,0666,291

Aver­age Eco­nom­ic Impact Gen­er­ated by Each Type of Vis­it­or: 2024

Eco­nom­ic ImpactSer­vicedNon-Ser­vicedSFRAll Stay­ing Vis­it­orsDay Vis­it­orsAll Vis­it­ors
Eco­nom­ic Impact per Day£ 264.74£ 64.14£ 39.53£ 113.30£ 64.74£ 101.62
Eco­nom­ic Impact per Visit£ 306.21£ 336.44£ 177.06£ 314.33£ 64.74£ 197.63

Sea­son­al Dis­tri­bu­tion of Key Vis­it­or Met­rics: 2024

Sea­sonVis­it­or Num­bersVis­it­or DaysEco­nom­ic Impact
Jan-Mar16.2%18.4%20.3%
Apr-Jun27.8%27.1%22.7%
Jul-Sep35.4%33.5%34.9%
Oct-Dec20.5%21.0%22.1%

Sec­tor­al Dis­tri­bu­tion of Eco­nom­ic Impact — £M includ­ing VAT in His­tor­ic Prices (2024)

  • Accom­mod­a­tion: 43.0%
  • Food & Drink: 19.2%
  • Recre­ation: 7.5%
  • Shop­ping: 11.1%
  • Trans­port: 19.1%

Sec­tor­al Dis­tri­bu­tion of Employ­ment — FTEs (2024)

  • Accom­mod­a­tion: 51.3%
  • Food & Drink: 17.4%
  • Recre­ation: 6.8%
  • Shop­ping: 9.7%
  • Trans­port: 14.9%

STEAM Com­par­at­ive Head­lines: 2023 and 2024 (Unin­dexed)

KEY PER­FORM­ANCE INDIC­AT­ORS BY TYPE OF VIS­IT­OR — COM­PAR­ING 2024 & 2023 — IN HIS­TOR­IC PRICES

KEY
An increase of 3% or more
Less than 3% changeStay­ing in Paid AccommodationStay­ing with Friends and Rel­at­ives (SFR)All Stay­ing VisitorsDay Vis­it­orsAll Vis­it­or Types
A Fall of 3% or moreSer­vicedNon-Ser­viced
Met­ric20242023+/-%20242023+/-%20242023+/-%20242023+/-%20242023+/-%20242023+/-%
Vis­it­or Days (M)0.9170.960-4.4%2.6042.28813.8%0.1480.1470.4%3.6693.3958.1%1.1611.0985.7%4.8304.4937.5%
Vis­it­or Num­bers (M)0.7930.67118.2%0.4960.40422.8%0.0330.0330.4%1.3221.10819.3%1.1611.0985.7%2.4842.20712.6%
Dir­ect Expendit­ure (£M)242.83232.024.7%167.01135.0423.7%5.8485.5685.0%415.68372.6211.6%75.1967.4711.4%490.87440.0911.5%
Eco­nom­ic Impact (£M)242.83232.024.7%167.01135.0423.7%5.8485.5685.0%415.68372.6211.6%75.1967.4711.4%490.87440.0911.5%
Dir­ect Employ­ment (FTEs)2,1442,158-0.6%2,3432,2334.9%53530.1%4,5404,4442.2%6856456.3%5,2255,0892.7%
Total Employ­ment (FTEs)6,2916,0983.2%

PER­CENT­AGE CHANGE BY VIS­IT­OR TYPE AND PER­FORM­ANCE MEAS­URE — COM­PAR­ING 2024 & 2023 — IN HIS­TOR­IC PRICES

  • Vis­it­or Days: Ser­viced (-4.4%), Non-Ser­viced (13.8%), SFR (0.4%), All Stay­ing Vis­it­ors (8.1%), Day Vis­it­ors (5.7%), All Vis­it­or Types (7.5%)
  • Vis­it­or Num­bers: Ser­viced (18.2%), Non-Ser­viced (22.8%), SFR (0.4%), All Stay­ing Vis­it­ors (19.3%), Day Vis­it­ors (5.7%), All Vis­it­or Types (12.6%)
  • Total Eco­nom­ic Impact: Ser­viced (4.7%), Non-Ser­viced (23.7%), SFR (5.0%), All Stay­ing Vis­it­ors (11.6%), Day Vis­it­ors (11.4%), All Vis­it­or Types (11.5%)
  • Dir­ect Employ­ment: Ser­viced (-0.6%), Non-Ser­viced (4.9%), SFR (0.1%), All Stay­ing Vis­it­ors (2.2%), Day Vis­it­ors (6.3%), All Vis­it­or Types (2.7%)

Sec­tor­al Dis­tri­bu­tion of Eco­nom­ic Impact — £M includ­ing VAT in His­tor­ic Prices

Sec­tors20242023+/-%
Accom­mod­a­tion170.74150.3213.6%
Food & Drink76.1568.8710.6%
Recre­ation29.9526.9711.0%
Shop­ping44.1339.9310.5%
Trans­port75.8769.079.8%
TOTAL DIR­ECT396.84355.1611.7%
Indir­ect94.0384.9310.7%
TOTAL490.87440.0911.5%

Pie Chart Dis­tri­bu­tion (2024 Dir­ect Expendit­ure Cat­egor­ies): Accom­mod­a­tion (43.0%), Food & Drink (19.2%), Trans­port (19.1%), Shop­ping (11.1%), Recre­ation (7.5%)

Sec­tor­al Dis­tri­bu­tion of Employ­ment — FTEs

Sec­tors20242023+/-%
Accom­mod­a­tion2,6792,6690.4%
Food & Drink9078615.4%
Recre­ation3553365.8%
Shop­ping5074815.3%
Trans­port7777424.7%
TOTAL DIR­ECT5,2255,0892.7%
Indir­ect1,0661,0105.5%
TOTAL6,2916,0983.2%

Pie Chart Dis­tri­bu­tion (2024 Dir­ect Employ­ment Cat­egor­ies): Accom­mod­a­tion (51.3%), Food & Drink (17.4%), Trans­port (14.9%), Shop­ping (9.7%), Recre­ation (6.8%)

STEAM Com­par­at­ive Head­lines: 2019 and 2024 Cov­id Recov­ery (Indexed for inflation)

**KEY PER­FORM­ANCE INDIC­AT­ORS BY TYPE

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