THE value of ancestral tourism in Scotland is set to double in the next five years to more than £300 million, according to VisitScotland.
At present 250,000 trips per year are made by international visitors tracing their Scottish roots, an industry which is worth £153 million to the Scottish economy.
Alan Rankin, the chief executive of Scottish Tourism Forum, said: "The biggest plu
s point of ancestral tourism is that it takes overseas tourists to virtually every single part of Scotland. It's clearly a market that has a huge potential with overseas Scots, not just in North America but across the world."
A spokesman for VisitScotland said: "There are 55 million people in the world with Scottish ancestry and we estimate there are between 11-15 million Americans with Scottish roots.
"Scotland has such a distinct identity as a nation. When you go overseas you are more acutely aware of it. With ancestral tourism that interest kicks in at a certain stage of life. Mid-fifties is the average age of the ancestral tourist.
"Scotland's archives are quite exceptional and go back to the 13th century. From the 15th century onwards there are well-archived documents, many of which are now searchable online."
Bill Lawson, a consultant genealogist for Co Leis Thu? (Who do you belong to?) at the Seallam museum in Harris, said: "As people get more able to fly around the world it makes a difference.
"A lot of families have lost their own inheritance, their own knowledge of their own background and they see other nations in their countries keeping their history alive."
