This year will see a major investment, anticipated to be in the region of £3 million, in The Scotch Whisky Experience, the five-star attraction at the top of the Royal Mile that has welcomed more that 8.5 million visitors from around the globe since it opened.
With work already underway, and due to be completed by Summer 2023, Susan Morrison, Chief Executive of The Scotch Whisky Experience, said, “We’ll be creating a theatrical and magical experience to tell the story of Scotch whisky production, blended with technologies which we believe have never before been used in a visitor experience. Our team have been nurturing this vision since well before the pandemic, and excitement is building. We can’t tell you more yet, but we promise that what we have in store will be breathtaking and truly unique.”
The Scotch Whisky Experience was first created when 19 individual Scotch whisky companies jointly invested in showcasing the industry to international visitors and remains a key partner for the industry. Representing a significant proportion of the Scotch whisky distilling companies, new distillers continue to join as more and more are built across Scotland.
The Scotch whisky industry is a considerable player in both Scotland and the UK representing £5.5 billion in gross value added (GVA) to the economy with 11,000 people directly employed in Scotland, 7,000 of those jobs in rural areas. In 2021, Scotch Whisky accounted for 22% of all UK food & drink exports.