Skills and infrastructure

Scotland’s tourism industry benefits significantly from easy access to and from Europe as well as within Scotland, a commitment to customer service and a skilled workforce.

Multiple transport connections bring local and international tourists and a solid infrastructure makes it easy explore even the remotest parts.

An experienced workforce with a reputation for friendliness means high numbers of repeat visits and consistent word of mouth recommendation.

More than 200,000 people are employed in the tourism in Scotland and the industry represents 9 percent of all Scottish jobs.

Fast transport connections

Thanks to a continued investment in transport infrastructure Scotland remains a location where tourism businesses can flourish.

This has contributed to a dramatic increase in passenger traffic at Scotland’s international airports – Glasgow, Glasgow Prestwick, Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen. A key factor in this growth has been the introduction of more direct flights to Europe, North America and the Middle East.

There is significant investment from Scottish airports to support this growth. BAA, for example, is investing £290 million at Glasgow International Airport and a further £60 million at Aberdeen Airport to create world class gateways for each city.

Modern infrastructure

The expansion of air services has taken place alongside major investments in road and rail.

Key projects such as the upgrade of the M74, Scotland’s busiest motorway, and a new Forth bridge will result in an investment of over £4.7 billion. In addition, new high-speed rail services have cut journey times from London to Edinburgh to under five hours.

Skilled workforce

Tourism is Scotland’s most important industry and our people as its greatest asset.

Recognising that people are vital to tourism and service quality, an extensive range of training and skills services is available to both new investors and existing tourism businesses – covering all aspects of recruiting, developing and retaining staff.

Scotland’s world-class universities offer postgraduate degrees and executive development programmes to deliver advanced leadership and management skills for the tourism and hospitality industry.

Scottish expertise in this field is highly regarded, with training programmes combining theory and work-based practical scenarios in diverse areas such as strategic leadership, finance and operations, events management and consumer behaviour.