Employment - Tourism

Tourism Employment - Scotland
In 2023, 245,000 people were employed in the tourism sector in Scotland - this is a 7% increase on 2022 (VisitScotland, n.d.). Tourism employment made up 9.2% of total employment in Scotland in 2023, with tourism turnover valued at £9.4 billion in 2022. As can be seen in Fig. 1, tourism employment, turnover, and GVA have all been increasing since 2009. Even despite a reduction in these statistics in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers have recovered and surpassed previous levels.

Looking specifically at marine tourism, 31,100 people were employed in marine tourism in Scotland in 2022 - making up 1.2% of total Scottish employment (Fig. 2) (Scottish Government, 2024). Worth noting that many marine tourism jobs are seasonal and/or part-time so this equates to approximately 22,600 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

Tourism Employment - North East SMR
Tourism employment in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire has remained relatively steady with a slight increase over time (Fig. 3). Employment peaked in 2019 for both local authority areas, but this dropped in 2020 and has not yet returned to those peak levels. The number of tourism business units in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire have increased since 2008 - particularly in the Shire (Fig. 4). 

Looking specifically at Marine Tourism, the North East employed 1800 people in 2022 (Scottish Government, 2020). Employment was relatively steady between 2014 and 2019 but dropped in 2020 - likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic - and employment numbers have not yet risen to pre-COVID levels.