New survey reveals value of grouse shooting to Highlands communities
Grouse shooting visitors to Scotland spent over £3500 per person this season before a shot was even fired over the country’s heather moors.
The statistics come from a visitor survey undertaken jointly by Scotland’s regional moorland groups and The Scottish Gamekeepers Association.
Survey papers were completed on 22 grouse shooting estates, helping to quantify the level of visitor spend in remote rural communities adversely affected by Covid 19 constraints.
Despite a lack of overseas shooters this season because of global quarantine rules, each visitor spent an average of £3593.18 in local communities, before shoot costs were even added in.
The SGA said that this represents an average spend of over £450 per day in some of the country’s most remote communities, with local accommodation, food, shops and garages all benefitting.
While average spend on car hire from air and ferry hubs saw nearly £327 per person going into the wider Scottish economy, the majority of the spend was in local, economically fragile areas.
The majority of respondents were internal UK visitors, with a smaller number from the Netherlands; the average visit lasting one week.
The economic injection, at a critical time, dwarves the average spend per trip by overseas and domestic visitors to Scotland recorded in VisitScotland’s last insights report from 2018.
The tourism body’s Key Facts on Tourism in Scotland 2018 found that average overseas visitor spend in Scotland was £624 per trip, with £234 per trip spent by domestic visitors (1).
Despite Covid 19 impacting the grouse shooting season this year, the survey organisers believe the shoots which did go ahead will have helped businesses to survive and retain staff.
Lianne MacLennan, co-ordinator of Scotland’s regional moorland groups, said: “A lot of work went into sector guidance with Scottish Government but the season was always going to be different, due to the pandemic and reduced overseas clientele.
“This survey shows how important grouse shoots are to fragile areas.
"There has been a lot of businesses very glad of having high spending visitors around during an awful year. Rural economies were disproportionately impacted by lockdown and we haven’t yet seen the end of unemployment and closures because of Covid 19."
Alex Hogg, SGA chairman, said: “Most Government enterprise agencies and tourist bodies are fighting over themselves to attract high spending individuals to Scotland. Grouse shooting does this. Scotland has a premium product, in global terms, and the spend helps communities.
"It sustains land management jobs and keeps families in homes. With the economy set to shrink, there is a relief that we managed to get some visitors in, at all, for the grouse this year."
