East Lothian Visitor Survey - sharing the findings
Last week we visited the Marine Hotel in scenic North Berwick to attend Tourism Talks, East Lothian Council’s annual tourism industry event which was chaired this year by Scottish Tourism Alliance chief executive Marc Crothall.
We were delighted to have the opportunity to to share the results of the East Lothian Visitor Survey which we recently completed as part of the JRS research consortium, working closely with Jump Research who also have significant experience in visitor research.
Duncan presenting at East Lothian Tourism Talks
The 2024 East Lothian Visitor Survey ran from Easter until the end of October, providing an updated picture on day and overnight visitors - who they are, what they enjoy doing during their time in the area and their views on the area’s strengths and weaknesses.
Over this period we obtained feedback from 1,283 visitors using a combination of survey methods including on street face to face interviews (utilising Jump’s interviewer fieldforce) and an online survey promoted to visitors at a range of locations including attractions, cafes and accommodation providers.
This online element involved working in partnership with local businesses who agreed to promote the survey using materials such as posters and leaflets containing a QR code in return for receiving a personalised summary of the results.
Duncan and Jim with Marc Crothall, Chief Executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance
Using insights to identify opportunities for tourism businesses
In our presentation we set the scene by describing some of the challenges faced by tourism businesses across Scotland, in particular the pressures caused by the increasing costs of living and costs of operating a small business.
Despite this challenging environment, the survey results suggest a number of growth opportunities for tourism business in East Lothian. Comparing the 2024 survey results with previous waves undertaken in 2018 and 2021 (see below) illustrated the very high levels of satisfaction recorded by visitors to the area and the range of types of visitors coming to the area has also grown more diverse, including an increasing share of visitors staying longer and travelling from further afield.
The survey feedback also confirmed the area’s key strengths included the welcome provided by locals, variety of attractions to visit and natural assets including beaches, wildlife to see and opportunities to take part in outdoor pursuits such as waking and water sports.
Importantly the strengths of the East Lothian tourism product align well with growing demand areas in tourism as more of us seek destinations which provide an escape to nature and wellbeing benefits.
Find out more
The presentation of results we shared at the Tourism Talks event is available to view in full here and if you are a business based in East Lothian you can register on the Visit East Lothian website to access a more detailed report of the findings.
And if you would like to find out more about the approaches we took in the research or how we can help your organisation with similar visitor insight needs let us know, we’d be delighted to discuss.