Germany is one of Scotland’s largest international markets. Figures from VisitScotland suggest that German tourists are second only to Americans when it comes to the number of days they spend here and indeed the money they spend as well.
Schottland Magazine Cover
Around 250,000 Germans visited Scotland in 2011 for instance. They spent £138m and 2.3m nights in Scottish hotels and guest houses. The number may have been slightly down on 2010 but those who did come here spent slightly more on average.
With that level of interest, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a new German-language magazine about Scotland has just been launched. The magazine, Schottland, will have an initial print run of 5,000 with a cover price of just under £5.Distribution deals have been struck with airports, ferry services and rail stations on mainland Europe (including German-speaking parts of Switzerland) to allow visitors to purchase the magazine before they even arrive in Scotland. The first edition contains articles or photo montages on Orkney, the wild northern coast, the River Spey (described as one of the best in the UK), bagpipes and whisky.
The magazine is published by an Edinburgh-based former journalist for the German edition of the Financial Times. The aim is to produce, to begin with, two issues a year (Winter/Spring and Summer/Autumn). Publisher and editor, Nicola de Paoli, helped set up the German edition of the FT 13 years ago. She has lived in Scotland for six years, during which she has continued to write for the FT, both from Edinburgh and in Hamburg.