Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Distilleries are on the must-do tourist list

Post Thumbnail

As someone who has banged the gong for whisky tourism and urged distilleries to open visitor centres, I’m delighted to see that everyone from the Scotch Whisky Association to VisitScotland is singing from that same hymn sheet.

In a nutshell, or better said in a hip flask, whisky tourism is big business growing in leaps and bounds. Figures from the industry show that of the 122 distilleries in Scotland, more than half (66) have visitor centres and another six have facilities for visitors by appointment. And that number is set to grow in the years ahead.

Last year, distilleries welcomed 1.9 million visitors, just behind Edinburgh Castle and the National Museum in numbers. That is a 45% rise since 2010 and the average spend per visitor at each distillery was £32. That is £61 million Scotland-wide and one must add all the money whisky tourists are spending at hotels, restaurants, shops and other facilities.

Most visitors are from Germany and the United States, and of course the UK, followed by China, Japan and India. What is equally important is that these visitors return to their home countries and will seek the whiskies they sampled and enjoyed on their trip and become, each in their own small way, brand ambassadors.

After all, decades of UK tourists enjoying holidays in France, Spain and Italy have certainly helped those countries export their wines and other drinks to the UK.

Hence I am particularly delighted at recently-revealed plans by Angus Dundee Distillers to create a visitor centre at Glencadam Distillery in Brechin. I have long seen it as one of the whisky industry’s undiscovered gems, with nigh on two centuries of history behind it — it began distilling in 1825 and is the last surviving historic distillery in Angus.

Indeed, it must be said that the east coast of Scotland suffered disproportionate distillery losses during the great wave of closures in the 1980s and 1990s, Glencadam being with Fettercairn virtually the sole survivors.

In the longer term, I hope more of the 50-plus distilleries without visitor centres will opt for one. True, they cost money and the rewards do not materialise overnight. However, tourism is the world’s growth industry and whisky distilleries are increasingly on our visitors’ must-see list.