12th January 2026
What might encourage more Scots to travel by rail for domestic holidays and breaks?
Increasing the use of rail for Scottish holidays offers a range of potential benefits. From a transport perspective, shifting even a modest proportion of leisure journeys from car to rail would help reduce pressure on the road network, particularly in peak tourist seasons and a popular destinations where congestion and parking are ongoing challenges. For visitors, rail travel can enhance the holiday experience itself, providing a more relaxed, scenic and stress-free journey that allows travel time to be enjoyed rather than endured. At a destination level, greater rail use can support town and city centres, encourage longer dwell times, and contribute to more balanced, place-based tourism that aligns with Scotland’s net zero ambitions and the broader goal of creating a more sustainable and inclusive visitor economy.
But how does the population view the prospect of taking the train rather than the car for the next domestic break? In our recent Scottish Tourism Index, we explored the potential of rail tourism in Scotland and the results show the potential that exists if some of the key barriers are overcome.
The report of the findings can be accessed by clicking on the image below.
15th December 2025
As we approach the shortest days of the year, what are the prospects for Scottish tourism over the winter months?
In the late Autumn Scottish Tourism Index, we explored Scots plans for Breaks and holidays over the November - March period. How many of us are planning holidays - and where? What are the motivations - and what are the barriers? In terms of home holidays, we discovered that around half of us are planning to take holidays and breaks with Scotland the main destination, benefiting from proximity and costs. Key considerations are food and drink, peace and quiet as well as warm and cozy accommodation that is affordable. You can read the detailed findings by clicking on the link below.
And as we approach Christmas, last week, we ran a special edition of the Scottish Tourism Index to deep dive into our plans for the upcoming holidays. How many of us are travelling away from home for Christmas and New Year, or indeed hosting others travelling from elsewhere - and how does it compare with last year?
We have incorporated this analysis in the report which you can access below:
1st December 2025
The latest Scottish Tourism Index suggests that the potential upturn in Scottish domestic tourism identified in the last two Indices (April and August) appears to have continued through the autumn – and we are also cautiously optimistic about 2026 – though the economic uncertainty remains at the forefront of many Scots’ decision-making
TThe Scottish Tourism Index provides an overview of how the Scottish home holiday market is performing - and the latest wave of research was undertaken on 1st and 2nd November with 1,013 Scots adults interviewed. As these surveys are undertaken at identical times each year, they provide directly comparable set of measures year-on-year, ensuring predictions for the year ahead can be fine tuned by comparing against previous surveys results. In the report from the survey (downloadable by clicking on the image below) we see that the market for holiday taking generally continues to be fairly resilient with tourism volumes slightly ahead of the picture at the end of October last year. In particular, potential increases in Scots home holidays, as well as to other parts of the UK - first identified in April - still look to be on the cards.
In a couple of weeks we will be releasing further results which look at Scots potential holiday taking behaviours over the winter season – with a special focus on plans for Christmas and Hogmany. Watch this space!
You can download the report from the 56 Degree Insight website on the link below:
28th August 2025
The latest Scottish Tourism Index suggests that the potential upturn in Scottish domestic tourism identified in April appears to be continuing through the summer - and we also investigate how Scots are feeling about paying tourism levies in some parts of the country from next year onwards
The Scottish Tourism Index provides an overview of how the Scottish home holiday market is looking for 2025 - and the latest wave of research was undertaken on 1st and 2nd August with 1,002 Scots adults interviewed. As these surveys are undertaken at identical times each year, they provide directly comparable set of measures year-on-year, ensuring predictions for the year ahead can be fine tuned by comparing against previous surveys results. In the report from the survey (downloadable by clicking on the image below) we see that the market for holiday taking generally continues to be buoyant and ahead of the same time last year. In particular, potential increases in Scots home holidays, as well as to other parts of the UK - first identified in April - still look to be on the cards.
We also look at the nature of Scots holidays taken - booking patterns, levels of spend, accommodation used and activities undertaken. We also look at the barriers to holiday-taking, all of which are still there and could still impact on these forecasts over second half of the year.
And with many Scottish local authorities still deciding on whether or not to adopt tourism levies to staying visitors, we have an update on how the Scottish population feels about them - levels of awareness are increasing, and there is more negativity than we saw earlier in the year.
Read more by downloading the detailed infographic, available by clicking the image below.
13th June 2025
56 Degree Insight’s 6th Anniversary celebrated by attending and presenting at QuestionPro’s annual XDay event in London on 12th June
The 12th June represented another significant milestone for 56 Degree Insight - six years ago we both set out on a journey into the unknown when we founded 56 Degree Insight
It’s fair to say that, in work terms, this was one of the best decisions we ever made. Since then, we’ve established fantastic links with so many clients, suppliers and partner agencies alike - and we’ve built a business on the back of it all! We both still love what we do - working with some fantastic people, hopefully providing insight and consultancy to help grow their businesses and to better understand their markets and sectors.
And we marked the occasion yesterday in true 56 Degree Insight style by combining work and play on a visit to London. After meeting several ex colleagues during the day, in the evening we attended the annual XDay event hosted by our survey software partners QuestionPro
We were delighted to be invited to present to an audience of fellow research and CEX professionals on how we use the QuestionPro software to script, host, manage and analyse our survey data - focusing on some of our key tracker programmes. The software helps to ensure we are efficient and nimble in the survey design and data collection process meaning we can spend more time focusing on understanding what the data is saying and providing our clients with strategic insight.
This event always delivers - another great venue (near Waterloo) with stunning views from the terrace and plenty of food and drink to accompany the DJ session later In the evening.
It certainly provided the perfect round up to our company’s sixth anniversary!
Looking back over the last six years, thank you again to everyone who showed faith in us - especially in the early days. We love you all!!
30th May 2025
The latest Scottish Tourism Index suggests some continued recovery for domestic tourism in Scotland this year - and we investigate the Trump affect - how will it impact on holidays to the US and the welcome Americans visitors can expect in Scotland?
The late April 2025 Scottish Tourism Index provides an overview of how the Scottish home holiday market is looking for 2025. Some 1,011 Scots were interviewed after Easter with the primary purpose of establishing the characteristics of Scots’ holiday-taking attitudes and behaviours. As surveys are undertaken at identical times each year, it provides a directly comparable set of measures year-on-year, ensuring predictions for the year ahead can be fine tuned by comparing against previous surveys results. In the report from the survey (downloadable by clicking on the image below) we see that the market for holiday taking generally is more buoyant than in January - with the most optimistic forecast for domestic holidays in the last 3 years. The favourable weather throughout Spring appears to have given an early boost to Scottish tourism this year - and at this stage, there is the potential for the best domestic season since the post-Covid boosts in 2021.
We also investigate Scots’ views on the first four months of the Trump administration in the United States - and in particular, how their views and opinions impact on tourism. We see that whilst the largely negative views about the administration appear to be reducing the appeal of the USA as a holiday destination at the moment, there is little evidence of any significant antipathy towards Americans visiting Scotland this year. Indeed, it would appear likely that if anything, Scots will be even more welcoming than usual to US visitors, with a display of empathy and appreciation for their visits.
Read more by downloading the detailed infographic, available by clicking the image below.
12th March 2025
SCOTTISH TOURISM MONTH, MARCH 2025:
Measuring progress on Scotland’s National Tourism Strategy
Scotland Outlook 2030, Scotland’s national tourism strategy, was launched just before Covid in early March 2020 and has the overriding ambition for Scotland to become the world leader in 21st century tourism.
But five years on, how have things progressed towards the goals of the Strategy? The Scottish Tourism Alliance commissioned 56 Degree Insight to ascertain amongst Scots what they think already makes Scotland a world beating destination, and where it currently falls down compared to its competitors. We placed a series of questions in our most recent ‘Scotland’s Viewpoint’ survey and some of the key findings were discussed at the STA’s Signature Conference yesterday in the breakfast briefing with First Minister, John Swinney, Minister for Public Finance, Ivan McKee and STA Chair, Rebecca Brooks.
While Scottish adults believe there are positive signs in our goal to become the world leading tourism destination, there’s still some work to do particularly in terms of transport infrastructure, service and value for money before we can claim to be ‘world class’.
The full report from the research can be downloaded by clicking on the image below:
5th February 2025
The latest Scottish Tourism Index suggests some small signs of recovery for domestic tourism in 2025
The January 2025 Scottish Tourism Index provides an overview of how the Scottish home holiday market might look for the year ahead. Some 1,010 Scots were interviewed in late January with the primary purpose of establishing the characteristics of Scots’ holiday-taking attitudes and behaviours. As surveys are undertaken at identical times each year, it provides a directly comparable set of measures year-on-year, ensuring predictions for the year ahead can be fine tuned by comparing against previous surveys results. In the report from the survey (downloadable by clicking on the image below) we provide some contextual analysis of the extent to which the economic situation might continue to dampen and shape holiday demand. We then look back at Scots’ holiday behaviours in 2024 and then forward to 2025 to establish where we may see potential growth as well as continued challenges.
When the Scottish Tourism Index was launched in 2020, the main driver of consumer behaviours was Covid-19. As we emerged from the Pandemic, the economic impacts it left behind along with the energy crisis, the war in Ukraine and Government fiscal policies have meant that the cost of living crisis has replaced Covid as the main determinant of consumer holiday behaviours. Last year, whilst more Scots continued to redicscover foreign holiday destinations (and remember approaching 200,000 of us visited Germany for the Euros!), this was often at the expense of home holidays as smaller family budgets constrained domestic spending on hospitality. At the start of 2025 we are tentatively optimistic that the year ahead looks slightly more buoyant for home holidays with more of us claiming they are back ‘on the agenda’.
Read more by downloading the detailed infographic, available by clicking the image below
5th February 2025
The Future of Tourism - a joint paper from Yellow Railroad and 56 Degree Insight
New trends and innovations continually disrupt industries, and the tourism industry is no exception. Keeping pace with these emerging tourism trends can help businesses stay competitive and cater to customers’ needs. Of course most innovations and resulting changes in consumer behaviour don’t tend to be immediate - they are often gradual in their introduction, and as consumers, our behaviours change at a similar pace. However there is always a great eagerness and appetite to unearth and take advantage of any ‘big trends’ in travel and tourism and to stay ahead of the game.
To examine global trends in travel and tourism in more detail, 56 Degree Insight teamed up with Tom Buncle, Managing Director of Yellow Railroad Ltd, a consultancy which helps destinations improve their competitiveness through branding, marketing, destination management and crisis recovery. Prior to establishing his own consultancy, Tom was Chief Executive of Visit Scotland. He is an Honorary Professor at Edinburgh’s Heriot Watt University and lectures at conferences worldwide on destination branding, crisis recovery, and global travel trends.
Our joint paper summarises the key trends which Tom has identified and which we have subsequently looked at through the lens of the Scottish population by quantifying key measures in Scotland’s Viewpoint, our quarterly representative survey of the Scottish adult population. Some 1,010 Scots were interviewed in late January 2025. We tested reactions to these potential travel and tourism trends - and in particular, aimed to identify which ones resonated most?
Read more by downloading the detailed infographic, available by clicking the image below
21st May 2024
Project 18-40: Understanding the Younger Traveller
Over the past few months we’ve been busy working with our tourism consultancy partner Blue Sail on ‘Project 18-40: Understanding the Younger Traveller’, to get to grips with the characteristics, motivations and behaviours of UK-based Generation Z and Millennial travellers – an area of the population that is often overlooked in more established visitor segmentation models.
On the back of that research, today we’re launching a new visitor segmentation solution with seven discrete segments which profiles and sizes the younger traveller and which aims to help all of us in the tourism industry identify growth opportunities for the domestic overnight market among younger adults.
You can find details of the seven segments and findings from the research by clicking on the image below:
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