Tain distillery is among tourist whisky winners
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WORLDWIDE interest in whisky and the huge success of the North Coast 500 has been credited with a boom in visitors to north distilleries.
Glenmorangie in Tain has cited the popularity of the touring route and growing cruise ship demand with its year-on-year growth.
It is one of numerous distilleries across the Highlands to be enjoying rude health. Indeed, whisky tourism reached record levels in 2017 with 1.9 million visits to Scottish whisky distilleries – an 11.4 per cent jump on the previous year.
Visitor numbers in the industry are also up by nearly 50 per cent on just eight years ago.
And Stuart Smith, Glenmorangie brand home manager, said the Tain distillery’s visitor centre is among those enjoying roaring trade.
"Glenmorangie distillery visitor centre has experienced year on year growth, driven largely by visitors to the NC500 route and also by cruise ship visitors berthing at Invergordon. Our visitors come from all over the globe," he said.
"The level of knowledge varies considerably, from complete Glenmorangie novices to whisky connoisseurs; therefore over the years we have developed a range of different tours which provide a different experience dependent on the visitor."
Scotland-wide, distillery visitor centres reported that the highest number of visitors came from Germany and the USA, followed by India, China and Japan.
SWA chief executive Karen Betts said: "These record figures are great news for the industry and great news for Scotland.
"These are exciting times. Whisky distilleries have invested – and continue to invest – hugely in providing world class visitor facilities at their sites all over Scotland and they are collaborating in establishing new whisky trails and finding new ways of telling the story of Scotch to visitors."
Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland, said the growth in visitors "reflects the hard work and investment by the industry in delivering a world-class experience. It is a vital part of local tourism. Not only do distilleries benefit from the draw of ‘the water of life’ but so too do the surrounding towns and villages."
