This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Festive flow of visitors to historic properties
24/01/2003
Visitor numbers at Historic Scotland's largest
attractions increased over the festive period by 6.8 per
cent, Historic Scotland has announced.
A total of 48,517 people visited Historic Scotland's top
seven properties in the fortnight from December 23 to
January 5 compared to 45,417 visitors for the same period
in 2001-2002.
This compares to 39,420 visitors in 2000-01 - the last
figures before Foot and Mouth and the September 11
terrorist attacks affected the tourism industry.
Although there were slight percentage drops at Edinburgh
and Stirling castles, Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness more
than doubled the number the visitors following the opening
of its new tourism centre earlier last year.
The other four Historic Scotland properties are Fort
George, St Andrews Castle, Melrose Abbey and Jedburgh
Abbey.
Deputy Tourism Minister Elaine Murray said:
"Historic Scotland's top seven properties stretch from
the Borders to the Highlands. The figures for Edinburgh and
Stirling Castles have remained about the same with 30,000
and 9,000 visitors respectively but it is the more
far-flung properties that have shown significant
increases.
"Urquhart Castle, for example, recorded an increase of
146% jumping from just over 1,800 last year to more than
4,450 this year. This was due to the success of the new
visitor centre and to it being open on New Year's Day for
the first time.
"Fort George, near Inverness, benefited from its annual
family fun days on January 1 and 2 with 2000 visitors
turning out in the holiday fortnight; while Melrose and
Jedburgh Abbeys in the Borders also saw visitor increases
of 54% and 32%.
"Obviously the tourism industry is still recovering from
the combination of events that took place in 2001 but these
figures show that our visitor attractions can still draw
good numbers even during the winter months.
"These figures balance well against Historic Scotland's
visitor numbers in 2000 when 39,420 visitors were recorded,
compared to 48,517 visitors this year.
"This positive start to the year heralds what I hope
will be a successful year for Historic Scotland and
Scotland's tourism industry in general."
Edinburgh Castle saw visitor numbers drop slightly by
1.2% to record 31,915 visitors. Stirling castle's numbers
were down 2.7% to 8891. However when compared to the
2000-01 figures both properties recorded visitor increases
of 18.9% at Edinburgh and 16.4% at Stirling.
The five remaining properties recorded increases of
between 8.7% (St Andrews) to 146% (Urquhart) when compared
to the same period last year.
The numbers were: 2002-03 2001-02
- Edinburgh Castle 31,915 32,304
-1.2%
- Stirling Castle 8,891 9,140
-2.7%
- Urquhart Castle 4,459 1,812
146.1%
- Fort George 2,000 1,137
75.9%
- St Andrews Castle 701 645
8.7%
- Melrose Abbey 352 228
54.4%
- Jedburgh Abbey 199 151
31.8%