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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-34651

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much VisitScotland has spent on marketing in each of the last five years, broken down by expenditure (a) within and (b) outside Scotland.

The following table summarises VisitScotland’s paid media advertising spend in the UK and Republic of Ireland and international markets over the previous five financial years.

Year	UK&RoI	Rest of the World	Total
2018-19	£470,000	£2,103,218	£2,573,218
2019-20	£434,100	£1,591,927	£2,026,027
2020-21	£3,897,944	£1,051,547	£4,949,491
2021-22	£5,137,157	£7,456,266	£12,593,423
2022-23	£1,370,273	£1,381,859	£2,752,132
2023-24	£1,215,703	£1,229,650	£2,445,353

Please note:

Due to the way VisitScotland plans its budgets, it is not straightforward to segregate Scotland-only spend, so domestic (UK and Republic of Ireland) spend has been supplied.

2021-2022 includes additional funds allocated that year as part of the COVID-19 tourism recovery programme. The programme supported the delivery of 10 priority recovery projects, dedicated to initiatives over and above the scope of existing public agency funding. This accelerated recovery in the short term, whilst providing the foundation for a sustainable recovery of Scottish tourism in the medium to long term.

VisitScotland’s grant in aid and spend on activities per year is outlined in its annual performance report, which is published at https://www.visitscotland.org/about-us/annual-corporate-reports/annual-report

Question reference: S6W-34652

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much VisitScotland has allocated to influencers to promote Scotland in each of the last five years, and how it monitors the return on investment of any such expenditure.

VisitScotland fees paid to influencers 2020 – 2024.

Calendar year	Total influencer fees paid
2020	£4,983.67
2021	£27,283.00
2022	£194,124.95
2023	£120,908.83
2024	£63,668

Please note:

Lower spend in 2020 and 2021 was due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions.
Lower spend in 2024 was due to in-year return of marketing budget and pause on marketing.
Increased spend in 2022 was due to the growing impact of influencers on travel and booking habits and the opportunity to reach new audiences at a critical point in the recovery from COVID-19.

To evaluate influencer partnerships, VisitScotland review content performance such as view rates, comments and sentiment, shares, saves and other metrics.

VisitScotland’s Net Economic Impact (NEI) assessment looks at the incremental influence and impact of marketing activities on visitor spend. This is reviewed annually and reported in VisitScotland’s annual performance report. In 2023-24 VisitScotland’s holistic consumer marketing activities resulted in an NEI of £56.7m.

Question reference: S6W-34549

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support the development of whisky trails that connect multiple distilleries and regions.

Question reference: S6W-34544

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with the hospitality sector to create comprehensive whisky tourism packages.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of whisky to our nation's tourism and hospitality sector, as well as the Scottish economy in general.

There were just over 2 million visits made to Scotch Whisky visitor centres in Scotland in 2022. This was the second highest number on record and more than double the number in 2021. The associated spend of these visits was £85 million in 2022. The Scotch Whisky industry employed around 1,200 people at Scotch Whisky visitor centres in 2022. (Source: Scotch Whisky Tourism Survey 2022).

The Scottish Government continues to do everything we can to support tourism and hospitality businesses to thrive.

Spirits distilleries looking to expand their visitor facilities can access funding through economic development agencies such as Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). HIE provides a range of financial support to independent whisky distilleries for projects specifically focused on the development of visitor facilities, as well as increased production volumes. Recent examples include Deerness Distillery, Lerwick Distillery and Dunnet Bay Distillers.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with business organisations and leaders to discuss current challenges and solutions, while pressing the UK Government to help businesses and ensure sustainable development within the visitor economy.

The whisky tourism sector brings in huge numbers of visitors to some of our most rural communities. These visitors help support much needed jobs, both on the mainland and in our Island communities. In partnership with Scotland Food and Drink, VisitScotland has created an industry guide to help businesses share some of the world class products we have (such as whisky) through the creation of memorable tourism experiences. The guide encourages businesses to think about the opportunity quality food and drink experiences can provide, including visitors’ desire to learn more about the region behind the produce and the local culture and history that influences it.

At a regional level, VisitScotland works closely with key partners and stakeholders to develop regional/destination strategies and support the development of regional investments. VisitScotland works with individual businesses as it looks to develop new products and help them to identify opportunities linked to trends, marketing etc.

In 2024, VisitScotland ran several regional workshops throughout Scotland and plans to continue to deliver these in 2025. The aim of the workshops is for tourism businesses to reach new markets and encourage longer dwell time.

VisitScotland also works in partnership with local Direct Marketing Organisations, to encourage integrated food and drink experiences, whisky tasting and storytelling into broader tourism offerings. This helps to enrich the overall visitor experience and helps attract visitors to the region. The Scottish Government also supports and promotes Whisky Trails through its other economic development agencies. For instance, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) provided funding for the Hebridean Whisky Trail. HIE also supported an ambitious community-led distillery project ‘Cabrach Distillery’ with up to £0.5m funding towards the £5m development to create a new distillery in the most rural area of Moray, well known for its history in distilling. HIE’s funding will help with the refurbishment of the farm steadings. The new distillery hopes to attract thousands of new visitors to the area

VisitScotland supports and promotes whisky related tourism businesses across its activity including marketing (owned, earned and paid), industry support, travel trade engagement. VisitScotland weaves whisky imagery and content into its seasonal global marketing campaign activity including current activity with Expedia, TripAdvisor and SkyScanner. Whisky tourism experiences also feature across all VisitScotland’s owned channels – email marketing, website, social media etc. Through consumer PR activity, VisitScotland has generated 117 media articles globally with an inclusion of whisky from 1 April 2024 – 13 February 2025.

Whisky remains a key driver of visits, with 21% of visitors indicating that they visited a whisky distillery as part of their trip to Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-34545

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding opportunities are available for spirits distilleries looking to expand their visitor facilities.

Question reference: S6W-34546

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is collaborating with communities to enhance the whisky tourism experience.

Question reference: S6W-34547

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what initiatives are in place to promote whisky tourism.

Question reference: S6O-04418

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of referrals to audiology services at NHS Grampian are seen within the 18-week target.

Question reference: S6W-34805

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support it has given to the Aberdeen Energy Transition Zone in each of the last three financial years.

A breakdown of the funding support provided by the Scottish Government to the Energy Transition Zone project over the past three financial years is provided in the following table.

	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	Total
Energy Transition Fund	£9,000,000	£5,541,000	£2,505,000	£17,046,000
Just Transition Fund - National Energy Skills Accelerator	£39,960	£960,040	Nil	£1,000,000
Just Transition Fund - Energy Transition Skills Hub	£1,180,000	£470,000	£2,850,000	£4,500,000
Just Transition Fund - Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund	£1,280,000	£2,840,000	£2,840,000	£6,960,000
Total	£11,499,960	£9,811,040	£8,195,000	£29,506,000

Question reference: S6W-34514

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure a fair consulting process for electricity infrastructure, in light of reports that it could benefit financially by £4 million per year for each GW of power from ScotWind that is installed and has a grid connection agreement.

The consulting process provided for under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 and the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 ensures that public bodies, communities and members of the public are consulted on proposals for electricity infrastructure. The decision whether to grant consent is taken only after careful and fair consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations. The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening the pre-application consultation process by working with the UK Government on their proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland.