A year long visitor survey in the Cairngorms National Park has begun to help understand what motivates people to visit the area, how they get here, what they do and what they like and don’t like.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority has commissioned Progressive Partnership to carry out over 2,000 face-to-face interviews over the course of 12 months across the Park. It’s been five years since the last survey was undertaken so the findings will help identify changes to visitor profiles and trends.

Heather Trench, Sustainable Tourism Officer at the CNPA explained: “We’ve carried out visitor surveys in 2003, 2009 and 2014 so we already have some good baseline information and with 16 years between the first study and now, we’re expecting to see some really interesting results and changes to visitor profiles. We are looking for information on why people choose the area for a holiday, activities undertaken, transport usage and general National Park awareness.

“All of this data helps us to plan for the future to ensure we can offer visitors the best possible experience in the Cairngorms National Park and we will also make the results publicly available so that businesses can use the data to assist in their own marketing and development plans.”

The 2014 visitor survey revealed some very positive attitudes towards the Park with 96 per cent of visitors saying they love the Cairngorms National Park, 98 per cent said they would recommend the Park to others and 93 per cent said they would visit the Park again.

The last survey also showed that the most popular activities are sightseeing and walking and that 91 per cent of people said they were aware that they were in a National Park with 63 per cent of overseas visitors saying that National Park status influenced their decision to visit the area. There had been an increase in camping and self-catering type holidays between 2009 and 2014 and 90 per cent of visitors were getting about get using a car or motorhome, with fewer people using public transport.

Progressive Partnership will carry out 2,500 face-to-face interviews at identified locations throughout the Cairngorms National Park between May 20019 and April 2020 across different days of the week and times of the day. An interim summer season report will be published in November this year with the final report expected in July next year.