Wildlife-watching within the Shetlands, Outdated Harry Rocks in Dorset and the snowy peaks of the Cairngorms have seen an uptick in customer curiosity after that includes within the first episode of David Attenborough’s BBC sequence, Wild Isles.
“I’ve been inundated with enquiries about visiting Shetland and I’m delighted with the large curiosity the movie has created,” mentioned Richard Shucksmith, from Shetland Picture Excursions, who was additionally concerned within the filming and featured within the programme.
You are reading: Wild Isles: David Attenborough’s new BBC series leads to spike in interest for Shetland holidays
Episode one of many sequence begins by panning over Dorset’s Studland Bay and the chalk sea stacks, Outdated Harry Rocks, and Attenborough narrating from one of many close by cliffs.
Fore / Journey gives kayaking, paddleboarding and different excursions across the space. The corporate’s co-founder, Jade Scott, mentioned: “The sequence has highlighted how stunning our nation is and the way essential it’s to guard it, reactions in regards to the present from our clients have been actually constructive, and we’ve seen a rise in curiosity to discover this shoreline additional with us.”
Lodging suppliers round Studland Bay had but to see an impression on bookings, however there was an uptick in curiosity for holidays in Scotland.
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VisitScotland noticed a 66 per cent enhance in site visitors to the Shetland-related pages of its web site between 11-14 March, in comparison with the earlier three days.
Shetland’s two wildlife tour operators, Shetland Nature and Shetland Wildlife, have each reported an upsurge in enquiries because the programme aired on Sunday.
“I took over 40 brochure requests on Sunday night time alone and haven’t seen a spike in curiosity like this since SimonKing’s Shetland Diaries had been on the BBC round 10 years in the past,” mentioned Hugh Harrop, proprietor of Shetland Wildlife.
Google searches for “Shetland Islands” spiked when the primary episode aired on 12 March.
Vacation leases in Scotland are additionally proving well-liked with self-catering lodging supplier Sawday’s “Highlands & Islands” assortment amongst its greatest performing and “Scotland” searches on its web site up 25 per cent in contrast with March 2022.
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Its sister model Cover & Stars gives luxurious tenting stays throughout the UK and Europe and has seen searches for “Scottish Highlands” up 35 per cent over the previous month. It has cabin and cottage choices within the Cairngorms, whereas Sawdays gives lodge holidays.
Wild Isles is one other instance of tv exhibits and movies encouraging tourism to UK locations because the display tourism pattern continues with 39 per cent of worldwide travellers having booked journeys to locations after seeing them on streamed exhibits or movies, based on Expedia’s 2023 journey pattern report.
This chimes with VisitScotland’s personal analysis which exhibits that one in 5 guests are impressed to journey to Scotland after watching tv exhibits or movies shot or set there. Among the many tv sequence to be primarily based in, and partly shot on, the Shetlands is the BBC One drama Shetland. Though a lot of its inside scenes had been filmed on the Scottish mainland, many panorama and exterior photographs had been taken in Shetland, together with the capital Lerwick.
In the meantime, The Traitors is probably the most excessive profile, latest sequence to be filmed totally in Scotland – the gameshow was set in Ardross Fortress, which is round 50 miles from Cairngorms Nationwide Park.
“For a lot of communities, display tourism has introduced alternatives to develop the customer economic system with the extra spend from guests supporting native outlets, providers and amenities,” mentioned a VisitScotland spokesperson.
“This could have a constructive impression on customer numbers and encourage a wider unfold of tourists throughout the nation all year long.”
