Publication - Statistics
Scottish Household Survey: Tourism Sentiment, 2025
This publication contains results from Scottish Household Survey (SHS) 2025 regarding tourism sentiment.
Key points
- Almost half (48%) of adults in Scotland agreed that tourism was good for their local area, while 12% disagreed. Adults living in island (87%) and rural (63%) areas were more likely than average to agree that tourism was good for their local area.
- 8% of adults in Scotland agreed visitors were putting too much pressure on their local area while around half (55%) disagreed. Perceptions varied by local authority area with the highest levels of agreement recorded in Orkney Islands (48%), Highland (32%), Shetland Islands (31%) and Na h-Eileanan Siar (31%).
- Views on whether enough action was being taken to address any negative impacts of tourism in local areas were divided, with 14% of adults in Scotland agreeing that enough action was being taken and a similar proportion (15%) disagreeing. Almost three in five either said the question was not applicable to them (29%) or neither agreed nor disagreed (28%).
- 11% of adults in Scotland agreed that people in their local area were involved in making decisions on tourism while almost a quarter (24%) disagreed. Around two-thirds of respondents either said the question was not applicable to them (23%), neither agreed nor disagreed (21%), or did not know (20%).
- Around a third (37%) of adults in Scotland agreed that tourism and hospitality was a good sector to work in, compared with 17% who disagreed. Agreement was higher in rural areas (42%), particularly island areas (52%), than across Scotland as a whole.
- Respondents in island areas tended to express stronger and more polarised views on certain tourism-related issues than those across Scotland as a whole. In particular, higher proportions both agreed and disagreed with statements such as “enough action is being taken to address any negative impacts of tourism in my local area” and “tourism and hospitality is an attractive sector to work in”, suggesting a wider range of views and experiences in these areas.
Figure 1: Respondents were most likely to agree that tourism is good for their local area and least likely to agree that visitors are putting too much pressure on their local area
Percentage of adults agreeing with various statements about tourism in their local area, Scotland, 2025