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volcanic districts of Scotland’ (Emeleus and Bell, hiking, climbing, sailing and windsurfing. It is
2005), the handbook for which notes that its particularly visited by American and German
boundaries ‘are not easy to define, either tourists. By the early 1990s the need for new and
geographically or geologically’ (Emeleus and Bell, more sustainable forms of tourism (see Edwards
2005, pix). Geologically it encompasses sections of and Priestley, 1996) in Scotland was recognized
the major tectonic features of Scotland and parts especially to replace traditional coastal tourism that
of its principal uplands (Figure 18.2). was then in decline; alternative tourist attractions
Overall in Scotland’s 14 tourism regions and experiences such as geotourism were
around 80 per cent of the workforce is engaged in developed; its development required a major shift
the service sector, accounting for more than two in landscape recognition and tourism exploitation,
thirds of GDP which is worth around £90 billion the antecedents of which were the aesthetic
a year. Tourism in Scotland accounts for some 8 movements of a century or two ago that promoted
per cent of the country’s workforce, providing ‘wild’ landscapes as safe and worth visiting.
some 193,000 jobs. In 2007, domestic tourists to
Ayreshire and Arran (around 40 per cent from The aesthetic landscape
Scotland and 60 per cent from England) took
740,000 trips, stayed for 2.28 million bed nights movements
and spent £117 million; international visitors European travellers have from the late 17th century
contributed 160,000 trips, stayed 0.98 million bed explored new and different experiences with
nights and spent £50 million (Visit Scotland, landscapes as a core element. Travel writers’ texts
2008a). In 2007, domestic tourists took 2.08 and artists’ original paintings and their reproductions
million trips to the Highlands, stayed for 8.83 were a major 18th-century influence on where
million bed nights and spent £497 million; they went and what they expected to see. From
international visitors took 550,000 trips, stayed for the early 19th century, commercial tourist literature
2.72 million bed nights and spent £161 million generated specific expectations of landscapes.
(Visit Scotland, 2008b). In Ayreshire and Arran Landscapes are social and cultural constructs with
some 11 per cent of the workforce is engaged in tourists’ perceptions and their values ascribed to
tourism while in the Highlands and Islands it is them an admixture of direct observation and
around 15 per cent. Of course, it is difficult to cultural interpretation (Figure 18.3).
separate out from the various tourism statistics the Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the
exact significance of tourism to just the west coast Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1857)
of Scotland and volcanic tourism specifically, but likened the Sublime Movement to astonishment,
they do indicate the overall significance and fear, pain, roughness and obscurity. The succeeding
potential of tourism in the area. Indeed, in Scotland Picturesque Movement conversely focused on the
tourism employs more people than the oil, gas and softer effects resulting from nature’s subsequent
l
whisky industries combined; it contributes around (mainly geomorpho ogical) operations that
£4 billion a year to its economy. produced the variegation and harmony expressed
Scotland’s west coast traditional industries are by the meandering curves or rivers and lake shores,
farming, fishing, forestry, mining (especially for the grouping of their flanking trees, the interplay of
coal) and associated processing activities together natural light and shade over these features and the
with ship-building. Since the mid-19th century subtle colour gradations that bounded the scene
tourism has supplemented the traditional industries being major foci of interest; such a topographical
and began to replace some of them from the 1980s. approach was adopted from the late 18th century
Undergraduate geology students have been by the pioneering travellers, and the artists who
introduced to the geology of the Isle of Arran accompanied them, who picture-framed landscapes
since the early 20th century. For tourists the area from scenic ‘stations’ or viewpoints. The later
offers, apart from some mass tourism activities and Romantic Movement focused on the tumultuous
visiting country houses and other cultural heritage chaos of mountains with precipitous rock faces and
sites, niche activities such as angling, cycling, golf, deeply gouged valleys backed by rolling foothills;

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