Bed & Breakfast News Christmas 2016 (#43) | Page 17

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And that our EU citizens working in the
industry - and there are over 21,000 of
them - know that they are valued too.
And we will continue to promote the
interests of Scotland and its tourism
industry as we go forward.

Themed Years
Our B&Bs and guesthouse also have a key
role to play in delivering our programme
of themed years - especially in helping to
promote locally those elements of our
tourism offer that make Scotland special.
The themed years have given Scottish
tourism an edge, galvanising partners to
work across boundaries to create a
strong collaborative platform.
and events and our food and drink.
And all of this is supported by the most
important element - our people - skilled,
knowledgeable and passionate people people like all of you.
In fact, in 2015, the Scottish tourism
industry employed more than 217,000 such
people. That’s over 8.5% of all Scottish jobs.
217,000 people that can provide that
personal, warm welcome that keeps our
visitors coming back, time and again.
That’s a lot of ScotSpirit that we can
share. And in February, when the First
Minister launched VisitScotland’s Spirit of
Scotland campaign at Edinburgh Castle, we
fundamentally changed the way Scotland
is marketed around the world - one global
brand, with one global welcome.
That welcome is particularly important in
these challenging times - especially for our
visitors from the EU. Seven of our top 10
visitor markets are in Europe so we need
to make sure that they know that Scotland
still has a welcome for them.

Homecoming 2014 generated £94 million
of net additional tourism spend by visitors
and attracted over 326,000 visitors from
outside of Scotland.
During our current Year of Innovation,
Architecture & Design, 30 Funded Events
and 115 Partner Programme events
have been delivered; and thousands
of people have already engaged in the
centenary celebrations of the Festival of
Architecture, which has seen over 400
additional events taking place across
the country.
2017 will be our Year of History, Heritage
and Archaeology, and we are extremely
fortunate have the most fascinating and
inspiring history, heritage and archaeology