Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34544 on 6 March 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

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.

VisitScotland fees paid to influencers 2020 – 2024.

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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34544 on 6 March 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34544 on 6 March 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government is working closely with the UK Government on their review of electricity market arrangements (REMA), including on any potential impacts that zonal pricing could have on all market participants, including consumers, communities and industry. The UK Government is working on modelling to further understand this, and we will continue to scrutinise this closely. Modelling conducted for UK Government by LCP Delta and Grant Thornton indicates that indicates that Scotland’s consumers could potentially benefit from lower wholesale electricity prices. However, we are also aware of modelling which suggests potentially negative impacts for Scotland’s renewables industry.

We are engaging with a range of stakeholders, including the renewable industry and consumer organisations to ensure that the impacts of zonal pricing are fully considered by the UK Government ahead of any decisions on market reform. We have also gathered views on electricity reform via the first Scottish Forum on Future Electricity Markets held in December 2024 and our Scottish Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) which meets four times a year.

The Scottish Government commissioned independent research through ClimateXChange to assess the potential impact of locational pricing for a just transition to net zero, which was published on 12 August 2024.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33255 on 23 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

There is no record that Scottish Government has had any correspondence with Hampton Group International, Pitch@Palace or the UK Chinese Business Association, nor with Mr Yang Tengbo, in the last 12 years.

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.