Almost 110,000 people made the journey to the distillery in 2017, a 6% increase on 2016 - meaning visitor numbers have more than doubled since 2012.
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| Isle of Arran Distillery announces record visitor numbers |
The independent distillery recorded a turnover of over £6.9m in 2016 – an increase of 11% - with the visitor centre contributing 17% of this total. Over the six years from 2010 – a period of extensive investment – turnover has increased two and half times and net profit surged tenfold to over £1.3.
Last year, the Scotch Whisky Association, announced the results of its survey, which revealed that there were 1.7 million visits to all 130 Scotch whisky distilleries in 2016, of which Arran accounted for 7% of the visits.
Commenting on the news, Euan Mitchell, Managing Director of the Isle of Arran Distillers, said: “2017 was another fantastic year for us – both in terms of tourism and sales of the Arran Malt itself. We’re particularly proud that so many people are making the journey to Lochranza – from self-proclaimed whisky tourist to curious holiday-makers on Arran and everyone in-between. It is for this reason that we have placed so much emphasis on the visitor experience. With the completion of a £1m renovation at Lochranza, and with the current construction of second £10m distillery and visitor centre site on the south of the island at Lagg, we intend to improve an already world-class whisky tourism destination.”
Total visitor numbers to both Arran’s sites are expected to exceed 200,000 by 2020, once its second visitor centre site in Lagg is opened.
Posted by Steve Rush