The Impact Of Tourism On The Heart Of Neolithic Orkney

Scotland is well known for its heritage, and this is reflected massively through the tourism that they experience through heritage within their economy; there are many different heritage sites, that all contribute to the local and national economy. The group of Neolithic monuments has been around for the past 5000 years, and were classed as a heritage site back in 1999 by the UNESCO. The heritage site itself consists or more than one monument; the Maes Howe; a large chambered tomb, the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar; which are two ceremonial stone circles, and the Skara Brae which is a settlement. The heritage site provided a cultural landscape which gives insight to what it was like to in northern Scotland roughly 5000 years ago.

The heritage site also explores educational opportunities, as it is sharing past history, as the site has many different factors; it does well to generate different segments within the tourism markets, meaning different monuments that are part of the heart of Neolithic Orkney attract different holiday makers according to a public survey.
This dissertation will look into the overall economic and cultural impact the heart of Neolithic Orkney experience as a heritage site, and explore the strategies used by the heritage site to main sustainability to allow development for future generation as a visitor’s attraction. Although there are many published documents already that define many different aspects and issue involving the heritage site, there has not yet been one as specific as this and that is the reason for exploring this

This will be presented through a literature review; it will explore the current activities that happen at the heritage site, and how it trades as a visitor’s attraction. The different element will be discussed is separate sections, however they are all very similar and explore the same type of variables. The desire to explore THONO economic impacts, the main focus here was to explore this from the tourism productivity is produces, as well as the employment it creates for the local economy. Exploring into this may be slightly difficult as it is hard to obtain correct numbers relating to this. The heart of Neolithic Orkney is popular amongst many tourists, both international and domestic visitors, and this is important for the attraction and the local economy, the visitor’s attraction offers a taste of history, and an educational attraction, as there is a lot of history, with visitor having the availability to spend money in local amenities. Councillor James Stockan who is the chair of Orkney Islands council’s and of the council’s development and infrastructure committee stated that due to the visitor numbers, Orkney islands evaluated a economic contribution of £3.1 billion; this was calculated on a wider scale, to