Scottish Household Survey: Tourism Sentiment, 2025

Perceptions of tourism and hospitality jobs

In 2025, around a third (37%) of adults in Scotland agreed that tourism and hospitality was a good sector to work in (9% strongly agreed; 28% tended to agree), compared with 17% who disagreed (7% strongly disagreed; 10% tended to disagree). Almost half of respondents either neither agreed nor disagreed (16%), said the question was not applicable to them (15%), or did not know (15%).

Perceptions varied across local authority areas (Table 18), with the highest levels of agreement recorded in Na h-Eileanan Siar (62%), Scottish Borders (54%) and Moray (52%). The lowest levels of agreement were recorded in North Lanarkshire (19%) and Clackmannanshire (23%).

Respondents in rural areas (42%) (Table 17), particularly island areas (52%) (Table 19), were more likely than the Scotland average (37%) to agree that tourism and hospitality was a good sector to work in (Figure 6). However, respondents in island areas were also more likely to disagree (23%) than the Scotland average (17%).

Figure 6:  Respondents in island and rural areas were more likely than the Scotland average to agree that tourism and hospitality was a good sector to work in

Percentage of adults agreeing that tourism and hospitality is a good sector to work in, Scotland, island and rural areas, 2025