SCOTTISH cities are outranking many major English cities for European holiday plans, as tourism returns to pre-pandemic levels, according to new research.
Edinburgh is the second most-searched destination in the UK, after London, for tourists coming from Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness also feature prominently in the top 10 compiled by flight and hotel search engine www.jetcost.co.uk for European Holiday.
The company says it regularly analyses searches done, on its website and claims the data is very reliable.
Jetcost also claims that the recovery of tourism is “fully confirmed” after the hard years of the pandemic.
They say searches for flights have increased by 250%, while those for hotels have increased by 330% in the first seven months of this year.
The data analysis indicates that a large majority of tourists have opted for Scotland, and especially for Edinburgh. Glasgow ranks number three for Spanish and Italians, number four for Germans and French, and number six for Dutch and Portuguese.
Inverness is the third most popular Scottish city and has been the ninth city most searched by Germans, Spanish and French, tenth by Dutch and eleventh by Italians.
Finally, Aberdeen is in the top twelve for the French.
Ignazio Ciarmoli, the firm’s marketing director, said: “Normality is here and with it comes the millions of tourists who visited Scotland every summer before the pandemic.
“Scottish cities remain major global tourist destinations with their cultural richness, attractions, coastline and landscapes, popular traditions, castles, churches and monuments.”
