The Highlands of Scotland has a dynamic combination of traditional industries, inward investment, innovative technologies and a well-educated and highly skilled workforce.
The rich culture and heritage of the area provides a base for modern industries and tourism, while traditional industries such as agriculture and fishing continue to support rural employment.
Population
The Highlands and Islands have a population of 400,000 and an area of 37,050 sq km. Inverness is the largest settlement with more than 70,000 people, while the Inner Moray Firth (Nairn, Inverness, Dingwall, Alness and Invergordon) contains approximately 40,000 people, or nearly 10% of the Highlands and Islands population. With such a dispersed population, 61% of Highlands and Islands residents live in rural areas or settlements of fewer than 5,000 people.
The Economy
The region has transformed itself to one where modern communications and infrastructure have much improved the quality of life for businesses and residents. The economy is routed in the traditional base of primary industries, namely agriculture, forestry and fishing. The manufacturing sector is diverse and is typified by small and medium enterprises and micro-enterprises. A strong and significant manufacturing sector includes numerous companies involved in medical products, pharmaceuticals, electronics, life sciences, renewable energy and the traditional sectors such as oil-related engineering and textiles. Inverness also has a very strong service sector, encompassing retail, public sector, professional services and tourism.
Tourism
Tourism creates 8% of jobs worldwide and is expanding annually at the rate of 4%-5%. The Highlands and Islands Tourism Strategy sets out 3 over-arching priorities, namely business leadership and productivity, world class destination development, and internationalisation. Tourism is worth £4.1bn per year to the Scottish economy, with estimates predicting this economic value to grow to £6bn by 2015. Tourism has created jobs for an estimated 210,000 people within Scotland and accounts for 13% of the total Highlands workforce.
Green Tourism
Low impact, environmentally-friendly tourism that cherishes, not destroys.
