Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Vis­it­or Sur­vey 2019 – 20

Final Report

June 2020

Con­tents

• Pro­ject background
• Sampling
• Research object­ives
• Research find­ings
  • Vis­it­or profile
  • Motiv­a­tions to vis­it Cairngorms area
  • Trip pro­file
  • Eval­u­ation of visit
• Meth­od
• Final sum­mary and conclusions
• Ana­lys­is

Pro­ject background

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park was estab­lished in 2003 and is one of Scotland’s two nation­al parks (the oth­er being Loch Lomond & The Trossachs Nation­al Park).

The Nation­al Park Author­ity co-ordin­ates the deliv­ery of four stat­utory aims: to con­serve and enhance the area’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age; to pro­mote the sus­tain­able use of the area’s nat­ur­al resources; to pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the Park’s spe­cial qual­it­ies; and to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of loc­al communities.

To make sure these aims are met, the bod­ies respons­ible for the parks’ man­age­ment require inform­a­tion regard­ing vis­it­or pro­file and beha­viour, volumes of use, vis­it­ors’ know­ledge and atti­tudes, and the impacts of inform­a­tion provided to visitors.

Pre­vi­ous vis­it­or sur­veys have been con­duc­ted with­in the Nation­al Park — in ²⁰⁰³⁄₀₄, ²⁰⁰⁹⁄₁₀ and ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅. This research was com­mis­sioned to con­tin­ue to inform the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of the park through the ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ Vis­it­or Sur­vey. This report provides data and ana­lys­is per­tain­ing to the 11 months from May 2019 to March 2020.

Research object­ives

The over­all aim of the research was to under­stand vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in terms of their pro­file, vis­it­ing beha­viour and vis­it­or exper­i­ence. Spe­cif­ic research object­ives were to:

1: Sup­ply inform­a­tion about vis­it­ors and their type of vis­it, to guide future tour­ism policy and activity

2: Gath­er data which can be updated in future stud­ies to enable changes to be tracked over time

3: Ana­lyse and com­pare with pre­vi­ous Vis­it­or Sur­veys and between the two nation­al parks

4: Bet­ter under­stand vis­it­ors’ exper­i­ence and motiv­a­tions seg­men­ted by demo­graph­ic and pro­tec­ted characteristics

Meth­od

• The research data was gathered using face-to-face inter­views con­duc­ted with vis­it­ors and res­id­ents at key points through­out the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. All vis­it­ors and res­id­ents who were inter­viewed were on a leis­ure trip at the time of the interview.

• Inter­views were con­duc­ted using Com­puter Aided Per­son­al Inter­view­ing (CAPI) technology.

• The object­ive at the out­set of the study was to gath­er data over 12 months – from May 2019 to April 2020. How­ever, due to the coronavir­us out­break in 2020, inter­view­ing had to be con­cluded in March 2020.

• All data with­in this report refers to the 11 month peri­od from May 2019 to March 2020. Data for the ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ wave of research has been adjus­ted to exclude April 2015 to ensure val­id comparisons.

• The tar­get sample for the year was 2,500. Across the 11 months 2,262 inter­views were achieved. Sample size tar­gets were set each month to ensure a rep­res­ent­at­ive spread across the year, with 40 sample points across the Park. The major­ity of sample points were matched to pre­vi­ous years, how­ever, some new points were intro­duced in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ to reflect new attrac­tions with­in the Park, e.g. Snow Roads locations.

• A ran­dom sampling approach was used (no quotas set) – to ensure accur­ate vis­it­or profiling.

• Each inter­view las­ted approx­im­ately 12 minutes.

All work has been car­ried out in accord­ance with ISO 20252 guidelines and the MRS Code of Conduct

Ana­lys­is

Stat­ist­ic­al validity

• The mar­gins of error asso­ci­ated with the data are detailed below. These are cal­cu­lated at the 95% con­fid­ence inter­val (mar­ket research industry standard).

Sample type	Sample size	Mar­gin of error
Total sample	2,262	+/- 0.41% to +/- 2.06%
Vis­it­ors	2,191	+/- 0.42% to +/- 2.09%
Res­id­ents	71	+/- 2.31% to +/- 11.61%

• Com­par­is­ons to ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ data are based on 11 months – May 2014 to March 2015 – to ensure com­par­ab­il­ity to ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀.

• Only stat­ist­ic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ences are reported.

• Bases vary by ques­tion depend­ing on routing.

• Where fig­ures do not add to 100% this is due to multi-coded responses or rounding.

• In com­ment­ary where net fig­ures are repor­ted these may dif­fer slightly from the added fig­ures in the chart. This is due to round­ing and using abso­lute fig­ures to cal­cu­late nets.

• On some charts fig­ures of <1% and 1% are not shown for ease of reading.

• Updates to the ques­tion­naire in 2019 mean that dir­ect com­par­is­ons to pre­vi­ous years are not pos­sible for some ques­tions. This is noted where rel­ev­ant through­out the report.

Sub-sample ana­lys­is

• The ana­lys­is detailed in this report includes high­light­ing stat­ist­ic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ences between sample sub-groups.

• These sub-groups are:

* Season -Summer (Jun, Jul, Aug 2019); Autumn (Sept, Oct, Nov 2019); Winter (Dec 2019, Jan 2020, Feb 2020); Spring* (May 2019, March 2020)
* Origin 1 - Scotland; rest of UK; all overseas
* Origin 2 - Scotland; rest of UK; Europe; North America; other overseas
* Gender - male; female
* Age - 16-34; 35-44; 45-54; 55-64; 65+
* Locations - Aberdeenshire; Glenmore; Badenoch; Strathspey; Moray; Aviemore; Atholl; Angus

• The sample sizes for each sub-group are detailed below:

Sea­son	Base	Ori­gin	Base	Demo­graph­ics	Base	Loc­a­tion	Base
Sum­mer	1,260	Scot­land	1,132	Male	1,182	Aber­deen­shire	487
Autumn	448	Rest of UK	542	Female	1,079	Glen­more	467
Winter	280	Europe	375	16 – 34	487	Badenoch	310
Spring	274	North Amer­ica	120	35 – 44	439	Strath­spey	301
		Oth­er overseas	93	45 – 54	450	Moray	275
		All over­seas	588	55 – 64	475	Aviemore	199
				65+	411	Atholl	115
						Angus	108

*Spring excludes April data — the Coronavir­us out­break meant no inter­view­ing could take place in April 2020

Sampling

Day and month

• Sampling was spread across days of the week and the months of the year.

• A sampling plan was pre­pared at the pro­ject out­set to alloc­ate inter­view­ing across the 40 sampling points and across the months of the year. This plan broadly rep­lic­ated the ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ sample plan to ensure com­par­ab­il­ity of findings.

• The largest pro­por­tion of inter­view­ing was con­duc­ted in the sum­mer months of June, July and August (56%). The autumn months (Septem­ber, Octo­ber, Novem­ber) accoun­ted for one fifth of inter­views and 12% were con­duc­ted in each winter (Decem­ber, Janu­ary, Feb­ru­ary) and spring (March, May).

• More inter­views were con­duc­ted in sum­mer in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ com­pared to ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ (45%), with few­er con­duc­ted in winter (16% in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅) and spring (17% in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅).

Week­day	%
Sunday	10%
Monday	11%
Tues­day	14%
Wed­nes­day	22%
Thursday	8%
Fri­day	21%
Sat­urday	15%

Sea­son	%
Sum­mer	56%
Autumn	20%
Winter	12%
Spring	12%

Loc­a­tions

• The sample plan was also designed to ensure com­par­ab­il­ity to ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ in terms of the areas where the inter­view­ing was conducted.

• Just over a fifth of inter­views were con­duc­ted in the Aber­deen­shire and Glen­more areas of the Park, while 14% were con­duc­ted in Badenoch and 13% in Strathspey.

• More inter­views were con­duc­ted in Glen­more and few­er in Aber­deen­shire in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ than in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅.

• A full break­down of the indi­vidu­al sample points is detailed over.

Loc­a­tion	2019 – 20	2014 – 15
Aber­deen­shire	22%	31%
Glen­more	21%	16%
Strath­spey	13%	13%
Badenoch	14%	12%
Moray	9%	12%
Aviemore	9%	10%
Atholl	5%	4%
Angus	5%	4%

Area	Sampling loc­a­tion	Num­ber	%
Aviemore ‑9%	Aviemore main street	199	9%
Glen­more — 21%	Rothiemurchus Car Park	80	4%
	Loch an Eilein	88	4%
	Loch Morlich/​Glenmore Centre & Café	119	5%
	Cairngorm Ski Centre – car park at base station	145	6
Atholl ‑5%	Blair Atholl — vil­lage square	39	2%
	Blair Castle	13	1%
	House of Bruar	25	1%
	Kil­liecrankie	38	2%
Badenoch — 14%	Lag­gan — near Pottery	25	1%
	High­land Folk Museum, Newtonmore	54	2%
	Kin­gussie — main street	68	3%
	Kin­craig High­land Wild­life Park	66	3%
	Lag­gan — Wolftrax	35	2%
	Dal­whin­nie Distillery	30	1%
	Uath Lochans	23	1%
	Achlean Road end	9	<1%
Angus ‑5%	Glen Esk Car Park	46	2%
	Glen Doll/​Clova Car Park	62	3%
Strath­spey – 13%	Land­mark Centre, Carrbridge	129	6%
	Spey­side Heath­er Centre, Skye of Curr	43	2%
	Osprey Centre Car Park, Loch Garten	69	3%
	Grant­own on Spey – main street	60	3%
Moray – 12%	Glen­liv­et Dis­til­lery Car Park	47	2%
	Tomin­toul — vil­lage centre	82	4%
	Lecht Ski Area	61	3%
	Snow roads — Still	30	1%
	Snow roads — Watchers	55	2%
Aber­deen­shire – 22%	Bal­later — vil­lage centre/​TIC	94	4%
	Loch Muick Car Park	41	2%
	Bal­mor­al Car Park	47	2%
	Roy­al Loch­nagar Dis­til­lery Car Park	22	1%
	Brae­mar — vil­lage centre	53	2%
	Linn of Dee Car Park	63	3%
	Glen­shee	58	3%
	Burn O’Vat Car Park, Dinnet	43	2%
	Glen Tanar Car Park	41	2%
	Strath­don	16	1%
	Snow roads — Con­nect­ing Contours	9	<1%

Vis­it­or profile

Demo­graph­ics

• The total sample included slightly more males (52%) than females (48%). This rep­res­ents a small increase in female respond­ents com­pared to ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅.

• There was an even spread across the age groups from age 35 and older with approx­im­ately one fifth of respond­ents fall­ing into each band. One fifth were also in the under 35 year old age group, with 5% aged 16 to 24 and 16% aged 25 to 34.

• Young­er respond­ents were more likely to vis­it the Cairngorms in the winter months than older respond­ents – 31% of winter vis­it­ors were aged 16 to 34 com­pared to 20% at oth­er times of year. This is likely to be due to the pop­ular­ity of snow sports amongst young­er age groups.

• The age pro­file of the sample in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ matched the pro­file in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅.

Cat­egory	2014 – 15	2019 – 20
Male	44%	48%
Female	56%	52%
16 – 24	6%	5%
25 – 34	16%	16%
35 – 44	21%	19%
45 – 54	20%	20%
55 – 64	20%	21%
65+	17%	18%

Ori­gin

• The major­ity of vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ were from the UK (73%), with 48% from Scot­land and 25% from the rest of the UK.

• Of the 27% over­seas vis­it­ors, the largest pro­por­tion was from Europe (17%), with a fur­ther 5% from North Amer­ica, 3% from Australia/​New Zea­l­and and 1% from oth­er countries.

• The ori­gin pro­file of vis­it­ors in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ was very sim­il­ar to the pro­file in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅. There were, how­ever, slightly few­er vis­it­ors from Scot­land and more from Europe and oth­er parts of the world.

• The pro­por­tion of vis­it­ors from Europe peaked in spring and sum­mer, while dur­ing the winter months almost two thirds of vis­it­ors were from Scot­land, 28% were from the rest of the UK and very few vis­it­ors (only 7%) were from overseas.

Ori­gin	2014 – 15	2019 – 20
Scot­land	52%	48%
Rest of UK	26%	25%
Europe	14%	17%
Rest of world	7%	10%

Ori­gin	Sum­mer	Autumn	Winter	Spring
Scot­land	65%	50%	45%	43%
Rest of UK	23%	26%	28%	29%
Europe	7%	12%	3%	22%
Rest of world	10%	11%	11%	4%

• Out­side of the UK, the largest mar­ket for vis­it­ors is Europe. In total, 17% of vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ were from Europe.

• The most pre­val­ent European coun­tries were Ger­many (6%), France (3%) and the Neth­er­lands (2%).

• The USA accoun­ted for 4% of vis­it­ors, while 2% were from Australia.

• Vis­it­ors from Europe ten­ded to be young­er than those from else­where – 36% were aged 16 to 34 com­pared to 20% of vis­it­ors from Scot­land, 15% of those from the rest of the UK and 20% from oth­er parts of the world.

Ori­gin	%
Scot­land	48%
Eng­land	24%
Wales	1%
N Ire­land	1%
Ger­many	6%
France	3%
Neth­er­lands	2%
Italy	1%
Spain	1%
Oth­er Europe	4%
USA	4%
Canada	1%
Aus­tralia	2%
New Zea­l­and	1%
Oth­er	1%

• The largest pro­por­tions of vis­it­ors from Scot­land came from areas with­in a close prox­im­ity of the Park, such as Aberdeen/​shire (23%) and High­lands and Islands (16%).

• Over a quarter vis­ited from east­ern areas, includ­ing Edin­burgh (14%) and Fife/​Dundee (13%).

• Few­er Scot­land vis­it­ors ten­ded to come from Glas­gow and Perthshire/​Stirling/​Falkirk – each account­ing for one in ten of Scot­land visitors.

Ori­gin	%
Aber­deen / Aberdeenshire	23%
High­lands & Islands	16%
Edin­burgh	14%
Fife / Dundee	13%
Glasgow/​Greater Glas­gow area	11%
Perth­shire / Stirl­ing / Falkirk	10%
Oth­er Cent­ral belt	5%
Dum­fries and Gal­lo­way / Borders	2%
Ayrshire	1%
Oth­er	6%

• Vis­it­ors from Eng­land came from a vari­ety of regions.

• The top ori­gin loc­a­tions were the South East (20%) and the North West (17%).

Region	%
South East	20%
North West	17%
South West	11%
Lon­don	11%
York­shire and the Humber	11%
North East	10%
West Mid­lands	7%
East Mid­lands	7%
East of England	5%
Oth­er	1%

Eco­nom­ic

• The total sample of vis­it­ors and res­id­ents was skewed to more afflu­ent socio-eco­nom­ic groups, with 34% with­in the AB group and 36% in C1.

• The sum­mer and autumn sea­sons had par­tic­u­larly high pro­por­tions of vis­it­ors in the ABC1 socio-eco­nom­ic groups – 76% in sum­mer and 71% in autumn, com­pared to 58% in winter and 56% in spring.

• Over two thirds (69%) were in employ­ment while one quarter were retired. Very few were unem­ployed, stu­dents or look­ing after home/​family.

• The work­ing status find­ings were very sim­il­ar to ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ with a slight decrease in the pro­por­tion work­ing full time and increases in those work­ing part time or self-employed.

• The socio-eco­nom­ic pro­file of respond­ents showed a high­er pro­por­tion in the C2DE groups and few­er in the ABC1 groups in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ com­pared to ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅.

Cat­egory	2014 – 15	2019 – 20
Work­ing full time	59%	55%
Work­ing part time	6%	8%
Self-employed	3%	6%
Retired	23%	24%
Unem­ployed	<1%	1%
Stu­dent	4%	3%
Look­ing after home/​family	2%	2%
AB	30%	34%
C1	45%	36%
C2	15%	20%
DE	7%	6%
Refused	3%	3%

Eth­ni­city

• In total, 2.4% of vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ were of Black, Asi­an or minor­ity eth­nic groups.

• This find­ing is slightly high­er than in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ when 1% were from Black, Asi­an or minor­ity eth­nic groups.

• The largest pro­por­tions of eth­nic minor­ity vis­it­ors were from rest of UK (4%) and rest of the world, exclud­ing Europe and North Amer­ica (12%). The pro­por­tions of BAME vis­it­ors were lower for vis­it­ors from Scot­land (2%), Europe (1%) and North Amer­ica (2%).

Cat­egory	2014 – 15	2019 – 20
White	97%	97%
Mixed	1%	1%
Asi­an, Asi­an Scottish/​British	1%	1%
Black, Black Scottish/​British	<1%	<1%
Oth­er	<1%	<1%
Prefer not to say	2%	1%

Health

• Almost one in ten (9%) vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ repor­ted that they, or someone in their group, had a long term health con­di­tion or disability.

• This pro­por­tion is slightly high­er than in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ when 7% repor­ted that they or someone in their group had a health con­di­tion or disability.

• The most com­mon health con­di­tion was mobil­ity related (51%).

• A num­ber of people men­tioned oth­er con­di­tions, such as heart con­di­tions (9 respond­ents; 5%), dia­betes (7 respond­ents; 4%), and can­cer (4 respond­ents; 2%).

Cat­egory	2014 – 15	2019 – 20
Yes	7%	9%
No	92%	91%
Prefer not to say	1%	1%
Mobil­ity	84%	51%
Sens­ory	8%	7%
Men­tal health	1%	6%
Learn­ing disability	1%	4%
Oth­er	1%	12%
Prefer not to say	1%	5%

First time/​repeat visitors

• Over one third of all vis­it­ors in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ repor­ted that it was their first ever vis­it to Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

• As we would expect, vis­it­ors from Scot­land (12%) and the rest of the UK (39%) were less likely to be first time vis­it­ors than those from over­seas (81%).

• When asked how often they had vis­ited in the last five years, 44% repor­ted that their cur­rent vis­it was the first in that time frame.

• More than a quarter (28%) were very reg­u­lar vis­it­ors hav­ing vis­ited 7 or more times in the last five years.

Cat­egory	%
First time visitor	37%
Repeat vis­it­or	63%
First vis­it in five years	44%
2 — 3 times	16%
4 — 6 times	13%
7 – 10 times	8%
11 — 20 times	9%
> 20 times	14%

Motiv­a­tions to vis­it Cairngorms area

Why Cairngorms?

• The main motiv­a­tion for people vis­it­ing Cairngorms Nation­al Park was to enjoy the beau­ti­ful scenery men­tioned by over half of respond­ents. Oth­er key reas­ons for vis­it­ing included walk­ing, for peace and quiet, sight­see­ing, vis­it­ing attrac­tions, wildlife/​bird watch­ing and hillwalking.

• The beau­ti­ful scenery was par­tic­u­larly import­ant to over­seas vis­it­ors (74%) com­pared to those from Scot­land (39%) or the rest of the UK (54%). Europeans were the most likely to be attrac­ted by peace and quiet (35%) and a high­er than aver­age pro­por­tion men­tioned hill walk­ing (23%). A good vari­ety of things to do for chil­dren was a key motiv­a­tion for Scot­land vis­it­ors (12%). Vis­it­ing attrac­tions was more likely to be men­tioned by over­seas vis­it­ors (31%) than those from Scot­land (18%) or the rest of the UK (17%).

• As we would expect, motiv­a­tions for vis­it­ing in winter were dif­fer­ent from oth­er sea­sons. Winter vis­it­ors were more likely to be motiv­ated by snow sports (42%) and less likely to men­tion factors such as scenery (27%), walk­ing (13%), sight­see­ing (10%) and peace and quiet (14%) than vis­it­ors in oth­er seasons.

• These motiv­a­tions cor­res­pond with the most pop­u­lar reas­ons for vis­it­ing the Cairngorms in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅, although few­er people men­tioned the beau­ti­ful scenery in the pre­vi­ous sur­vey (35%).

Motiv­a­tion	%
Beau­ti­ful scenery/​countryside/​landscape	52%
Walk­ing (oth­er than hill walking)	25%
Peace and quiet/​relaxation	25%
Sight­see­ing	22%
Vis­it­ing attractions	21%
Been before/​enjoyed a pre­vi­ous visit	19%
Wildlife/​bird watch­ing etc	18%
Hill walk­ing	17%
Nev­er been before/​always wanted to come	10%
Good vari­ety of things to do for children	9%
Cycling/​mountain biking	8%
Good vari­ety of things to do for adults	8%
Skiing/​snowboarding	7%
Passing through/​stopping for a break	6%
Vis­it­ing friends/​family	5%
Close to where I live	2%
An event	2%
The Spey­side Way	1%
Part of an organ­ised tour/​trip	1%
The Snow Roads	1%
Canoeing/​kayaking	1%
Fish­ing	1%
Climb­ing	1%
Oth­er	10%

Inspir­a­tion

• As well as determ­in­ing the reas­ons for vis­it­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, it is also import­ant to under­stand sources of inspir­a­tion, such as travel fea­tures, films, books and TV.

• In total, 30% of vis­it­ors repor­ted that they were inspired to vis­it the Park by some­thing they saw, read or heard.

• The most pop­u­lar source of inspir­a­tion was a travel fea­ture about the Cairngorms (10%). Oth­er sources that inspired vis­its to the Cairngorms included books about or set in the area (6%), TV pro­grammes (5%), recom­mend­a­tions (5%) and online video con­tent (5%).

• Vis­it­ors from over­seas were more likely to be inspired by things they had seen or heard than those from the UK; 59% men­tioned at least one source com­pared to 14% of Scot­land vis­it­ors and 31% of vis­it­ors from the rest of the UK. In par­tic­u­lar, 24% of over­seas vis­it­ors were inspired by a travel fea­ture (com­pared to 3% of those from Scot­land and 9% from rest of UK), while 15% were inspired by read­ing a book.

• First time vis­it­ors were also more likely to be influ­enced by some­thing they had seen or heard – 54%, com­pared to 16% of repeat vis­it­ors. In par­tic­u­lar, first time vis­it­ors were inspired by a travel fea­ture (21%), a book (11%), a TV pro­gramme (9%) or online video con­tent (9%).

Inspir­a­tion	%
Travel fea­ture about the area	10%
A book about/​set in the area	6%
A TV pro­gramme about the area	5%
Recommendation/​word of mouth	5%
Online video con­tent about the area	5%
Advert­ising or oth­er marketing	4%
A movie/​film about the area	2%
Oth­er	1%
None of these	69%
Don’t know/can’t remember	1%

Nation­al park status

• Almost nine out of ten vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park repor­ted being aware that the area is a nation­al park. This find­ing is very sim­il­ar to the pro­por­tion meas­ured in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅.

• Aware­ness of nation­al park status was high­er for Scot­land (95%) and rest of UK vis­it­ors (89%) than for over­seas vis­it­ors (79%).

• Over half of respond­ents who were aware of the nation­al park status of the Cairngorms area stated that this was import­ant to their decision to vis­it, with an even split between those describ­ing it as ​‘very’ and ​‘quite’ important.

• This rep­res­ents a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in the import­ance of the nation­al park status to vis­it­ors com­pared to ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ when 36% of aware vis­it­ors con­sidered it important.

Cat­egory	2014 – 15	2019 – 20
Aware nation­al park	91%	89%
Not aware / unsure	9%	11%

Cat­egory	2019 – 20
Very import­ant	28%
Quite import­ant	28%
Neither nor	19%
Not very important	11%
Not at all important	14%

Cat­egory	2014 – 15
Very import­ant	13%
Quite import­ant	23%
Neither nor	23%
Not very important	15%
Not at all important	27%

• The import­ance of nation­al park status was found to vary with ori­gin of respondent.

• Vis­it­ors from Europe were the most likely to con­sider it import­ant, while those from Scot­land were the least likely.

Cat­egory	All	Scot­land	Rest of UK	Europe	Rest of world
Don’t know	55%	49%	56%	71%	60%
Very import­ant	28%	26%	25%	34%	36%
Quite import­ant	28%	24%	31%	37%	24%
Neither/​nor	19%	21%	21%	11%	20%
Not very important	11%	13%	11%	7%	9%
Not at all important	14%	16%	13%	10%	11%

Trip pro­file

Type of trip

• Screen­er ques­tions were used at the start of the sur­vey to determ­ine the reas­ons why people were vis­it­ing the area. Those vis­it­ing for business/​work or for per­son­al busi­ness (such as food shop­ping, post office, doc­tors) were screened out.

• As we would expect, amongst those who took part in the sur­vey, the pre­dom­in­ant reas­on for vis­it­ing for both vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms and res­id­ents was a leis­ure trip, such as a day trip, short break or holiday.

• A small minor­ity of 2% of vis­it­ors were vis­it­ing friends or rel­at­ives as part of their trip, while 1% were com­bin­ing busi­ness and leis­ure in one trip.

Cat­egory	Vis­it­ors	Res­id­ents
Leisure/​holiday/​day out	97%	96%
Vis­it­ing friends/​relatives	2%	1%
Busi­ness and leisure	1%	3%
Oth­er	N/A	1%

Party com­pos­i­tion

• Just over half of respond­ents were vis­it­ing Cairngorms Nation­al Park in a group of two people, while one in ten were vis­it­ing alone, one quarter had three or four people in their group and 13% had five or more. The aver­age total group size was 3.1 people.

• Just over a quarter of respond­ents repor­ted hav­ing chil­dren aged under 18 in their party. The aver­age num­ber of chil­dren in the group amongst these respond­ents was 2.1. There were high­er pro­por­tions of vis­it­ors with chil­dren in sum­mer (30%) and winter (27%) than in autumn (20%) or spring (15%).

• Vis­it­ors from Scot­land were the most likely to have chil­dren in their party (33%), fol­lowed by those form the rest of the UK (21%). Only 14% of over­seas vis­it­ors had chil­dren with them. As we would expect, vis­it­ors in the 35 to 44 (48%) and 45 to 54 (36%) age groups were also more likely to be vis­it­ing with children.

• All of these fig­ures very closely cor­res­pond to the data gathered in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅.

• A slightly high­er pro­por­tion were vis­it­ing with dogs in ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ (15%) than in ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ (12%). Amongst vis­it­ors from the UK, 20% were vis­it­ing with a dog.

Cat­egory	2014 – 15	2019 – 20
One	9%	10%