STEAM Tourism Economic Impact 2019 Summary Report

Cairngorms Nation­al Park STEAM Tour­ism Eco­nom­ic Impacts 2019 Report Nar­rat­ive Summary

Cairngorms Nation­al Park’s Vis­it­or Eco­nomy 2019 This is a sum­mary of the tour­ism trends research under­taken for Cairngorms Nation­al Park by Glob­al Tour­ism Solu­tions (UK) Ltd.

2.1m Tour­ism Visits to the nation­al park area in 2019 up 7.5% on the pre­vi­ous year

4.3 mil­lion Vis­it­or Days and Nights gen­er­ated by stay­ing and day vis­it­ors to the park in 2019

£308.5 mil­lion was gen­er­ated with­in the loc­al eco­nomy through vis­it­or and tour­ism busi­ness expendit­ure, an increase of 14% on the pre­vi­ous year

Vis­it­ors to the park are vital to loc­al busi­nesses, sup­port­ing more than 5,942 full time equi­val­ent jobs, up 17% on 2009

Eco­nom­ic impact increased by 30% between 2009 and 2019

998,000 vis­its were made by vis­it­ors stay­ing in the park as part of a hol­i­day or short break up 41% since 2009, gen­er­at­ing 3.2 mil­lion nights in accom­mod­a­tion across the area

1,069,000 vis­its made by Day Vis­it­ors to the park area in 2019

Day Vis­its gen­er­ated £51 million for the eco­nomy of the park in 2019

On aver­age, vis­it­ors stay­ing in the park stay 3.3 nights in the region and spend £98 mil­lion on loc­al accommodation

Stay­ing vis­it­ors gen­er­ate a total eco­nom­ic impact of £257 mil­lion for busi­nesses in the park

Total Vis­it­or Day and Nights increased by 37% between 2009 and 2019

Total Vis­it­or Num­bers increased by 32% between 2009 and 2019

2009 2019

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

Stay­ing Vis­it­ors 48% of Visits Day Vis­it­ors 52% of Visits

Total Vis­it­or Num­bers 2.07m

Vis­it­or Numbers In 2019, there were an estim­ated 2,067,000 m tour­ism vis­its to the park; rep­res­ent­ing an increase of 7.5% on the pre­vi­ous year. Over­all, 52% of all vis­it­ors (1.07m) were Day Vis­it­ors; the remain­ing 48% (1.0m) stayed in the area for one or more nights (28% of those stayed in ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion; 18% in non-ser­viced). Vis­it­or num­bers have increased stead­ily since 2009 by 32%.

This is the first time since report­ing that vis­it­or num­bers have broken the two mil­lion mark with­in the Park.

Since 2009, Day Vis­it­ors have increased by 25%, (with a cor­res­pond­ing gain of 54% dur­ing Decem­ber). Over the same peri­od, total Stay­ing Vis­it­or num­bers have increased by 42% (with a cor­res­pond­ing gain of 20% for those stay­ing in ser­viced accommodation).

Key Fig­ures: Vis­it­or Numbers | Vis­it­or Num­bers | Ser­viced | Non-Ser­viced | SFR | Stay­ing Vis­it­ors | Day Vis­it­ors | All Vis­it­ors | | : — — — — — — — | : — — — : | : — — — — — : | : — — : | : — — — — — — -: | : — — — — — : | : — — — — — : | | 2019 | 0.587 | 0.378 | 0.032 | 0.998 | 1.069 | 2.067 | | 2018 | 0.565 | 0.318 | 0.032 | 0.914 | 1.007 | 1.922 | | Change ¹⁸⁄₁₉ | 4.0 | 19.1 | 0.3 | 9.1 | 6.1 | 7.5 |

Total Vis­it­or Days 4.31m

Vis­it­or Days Vis­it­or Days take into account those vis­it­ors who stay at any des­tin­a­tion for more than a day. For example, if a fam­ily of five stay three nights, they will account for five vis­it­ors, and fif­teen vis­it­or days. Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park spent an estim­ated 4,309,000 mil­lion days in the area as part of a tour­ism day trip, hol­i­day or short break in 2019; an increase of 7.8% on the pre­vi­ous year and a 37% increase since 2009.

Stay­ing vis­it­ors still account for 75% of all vis­it­or days, which is very high in com­par­is­on with oth­er areas through­out Scot­land, as is the high per­cent of non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion (49%). The aver­age length of stay by all stay­ing vis­it­ors to the park remains 3.3 days; while non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion stands at 5.6 days indic­at­ing a high rate of weekly rent­als with­in the area.

Key Fig­ures: Vis­it­or Days | Vis­it­or Days | Ser­viced | Non-Ser­viced | SFR | Stay­ing Vis­it­ors | Day Vis­it­ors | All Vis­it­ors | | : — — — — — - | : — — — : | : — — — — — : | : — — : | : — — — — — — -: | : — — — — — : | : — — — — — : | | 2019 | 0.975 | 2.119 | 0.147 | 3.240 | 1.069 | 4.309 | | 2018 | 0.978 | 1.867 | 0.146 | 2.991 | 1.007 | 3.999 | | Change ¹⁸⁄₁₉ | ‑0.3 | 13.5 | 0.3 | 8.3 | 6.1 | 7.8 |

Aver­age length of stay in days for dif­fer­ent vis­it­or types in 2019

Day Vis­it­ors	All Vis­it­ors	Ser­viced Accom­mod­a­tion	Non-Ser­viced Accom­mod­a­tion	Stay­ing with Friends/​Relatives	All Stay­ing Visitors
1	2.1	1.7	5.6	4.6	3.3

Total Eco­nom­ic Impact £308.5m

Eco­nom­ic Impact For the first time, tour­ism vis­its to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park area gen­er­ated a total eco­nom­ic impact of over £300 mil­lion (£308.54 m), an increase of 14.2% on the pre­vi­ous year and an over­all steady increase of 30% since 2009 (all mon­et­ary fig­ures in this nar­rat­ive report are indexed, unless stated, to allow for dir­ect com­par­is­on). The total eco­nom­ic impact in 2019 com­prises the expendit­ure of vis­it­ors on goods and ser­vices, totalling £249.28m, and the indir­ect and induced eco­nom­ic effects of loc­al busi­nesses and res­id­ents spend­ing tour­ism rev­en­ues loc­ally, account­ing for a fur­ther £59.25m. The ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion sec­tor again gen­er­ated the highest (49%) eco­nom­ic impact, equat­ing to £156 per per­son per day, fol­lowed by the non-ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion and Day Vis­it­or sec­tors, both at £48. The eco­nom­ic impact of the Stay­ing Vis­it­or sec­tor has increased by 31% since 2009, driv­en largely by the non-ser­viced com­pon­ent; Day Vis­it­ors’ eco­nom­ic impact has ris­en by 25% over the same period.

Key Fig­ures: Eco­nom­ic Impact (Un-indexed) | Eco­nom­ic Impact | Ser­viced | Non-Ser­viced | SFR | Stay­ing Vis­it­or | Day Vis­it­or | All Vis­it­ors | | : — — — — — — — | : — — — : | : — — — — — : | : — — : | : — — — — — — -: | : — — — — — : | : — — — — — : | | 2019 | fm | 151.75 | 101.15 | 4.320 | 257.22 | 51.31 | 308.54 | | 2018 | fm | 144.28 | 74.53 | 4.202 | 223.01 | 47.24 | 270.25 | | Change ¹⁸⁄₁₉ | % | 5.2 | 35.7 | 2.8 | 15.3 | 8.6 | 14.2 |

Aver­age eco­nom­ic impact gen­er­ated per per­son by each type of vis­it­or in 2019

Day Vis­it­ors	Stay­ing with Friends and Rel­at­ives	All Vis­it­ors	Non-Ser­viced Accom­mod­a­tion	All Stay­ing Vis­it­ors	Ser­viced Accommodation
£48 per Day	£29 per Day £135 per Visit	£72 per Day	£48 per Day £267 per Visit	£79 per Day £262 per Visit	£156 per Day £265 per Visit

Total FTES Sup­por­ted in 2019 5,942

Defin­i­tions:

• Accom­mod­a­tion: Pay­ments for overnight stays in accom­mod­a­tion, such as room rates for ser­viced accom­mod­a­tion, or 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.

Employ­ment Sup­por­ted by Tourism The expendit­ure and activ­ity of vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in 2019 sup­por­ted a total of 5,942 Full-Time Equi­val­ent jobs (FTEs); this rep­res­ents not only an increase of 5.8% with­in the tour­ism sec­tor over the past year, but also a steady rise of 17.1% since 2009. Total employ­ment includes the jobs gen­er­ated by the expendit­ure of vis­it­ors on goods and ser­vices, totalling 5,045 FTEs, and the indir­ect and induced employ­ment sup­por­ted through loc­al busi­nesses and res­id­ents spend­ing tour­ism rev­en­ues loc­ally, account­ing for a fur­ther 897 FTEs. As with pre­vi­ous years, the largest sec­tor for dir­ect employ­ment by far was related to Accom­mod­a­tion (2,769 FTEs) which has ris­en by 16.7% since 2009; fol­lowed by Food & Drink (812 FTEs); and then Trans­port (689 FTES).

Employ­ment Sup­por­ted by Tour­ism 2009 – 2019: Full-Time Equi­val­ents (FTEs) by Type | Sec­tors | 2019 | 2009 | +/-% | | : — — — — — — — | : — — : | : — — : | : — — : | | Accom­mod­a­tion | 2,769 | 2,373 | 16.7% | | Food & Drink | 812 | 703 | 15.5% | | Recre­ation | 322 | 277 | 16.1% | | Shop­ping | 454 | 379 | 19.8% | | Trans­port | 689 | 599 | 15.1% | | TOTAL DIR­ECT | 5,045 | 4,331 | 16.5% | | Indir­ect | 897 | 744 | 20.6% | | TOTAL | 5,942 | 5,075 | 17.1% |