Filmed at a Scottish castle, the TV series The Traitors has generated £21.8 million for Scotland’s economy and supported more than 750 jobs since production began in 2022, report finds

The BBC’s The Traitors, filmed at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, has contributed an estimated £21.8 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) to Scotland’s economy between 2022 and 2025. The Traitors: Scotland Economic Impact says the show format has supported over 750 workforce jobs, an average of 189 a year. According to the BBC report, every £1 of GVA directly generated by the production meant a total of £6.84 was added to the Scottish economy. Nine series have been filmed at the castle since 2022, with four more confirmed for 2026.How did BBC's The Traitors generate £21.8 million for the Scottish economyThe Traitors contributed £21.8 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Scottish economy between 2022 and 2025. It says this reflects direct production spending as well as indirect effects across sectors such as hospitality, transport and local services, and the induced effect of spending by workers in the local economy. Every £1 of GVA directly generated by the production meant a total of £6.84 was added to the Scottish economy.On employment, the report says the show supported over 750 workforce jobs across all series produced between 2022 and 2025, an average of 189 jobs per year. The actual number of roles created is likely to be higher because the programme is in production for only a few weeks of the year. The report adds that for every job directly working on the production in Scotland, a further 14.8 jobs were created across the wider Scottish economy through spending with local suppliers. It also reports that the production period was 17 weeks in 2025 and is set to increase to 25 weeks in 2026, owing to the commissioning of an additional US series for NBCU.How has The Traitors boosted Scotland's screen tourism sectorThe Traitors is strengthening Scotland's existing screen tourism sector. It cites research commissioned by Screen Scotland that estimated £140 million of GVA was added to Scotland's economy in 2023 through tourism expenditure associated with screen tourism, a figure that relates to screen tourism as a whole rather than to the show alone. Among the figures are a 190% rise in Expedia searches for the Highlands following series two, a 69% rise in Trainline bookings to Inverness since the show began, and a 60% increase in SIXT-reported Google searches for "castle holidays" over January 2025. Tour operator EvanEvan reported a 44% rise in Edinburgh-related searches and a 27% increase in Scotland-wide searches in the first three weeks of January 2025.According to the VisitScotland, during the celebrity series, searches including "Traitors castle", "Where is the Traitors castle?" and "Where is Traitors filmed?" were between 17% and 33% above 2025's previous high. It states that the castle is not open to the public and that Ardross Castle is privately owned. VisitScotland says it has run themed content across social media and its website, and sent an email to around 289,000 subscribers ahead of the finale. US visitors accounted for 22% of all overseas trips to Scotland and 36% of all overseas spending in 2024, citing VisitScotland analysis of the International Passenger Survey.Traitors contribute to Scotland's audiovisual sectorThe report says Ardross Castle, which operates as an events venue, has seen a fourfold increase in enquiries, which it attributes to the show's public profile, and is now fully booked each year. It quotes Ardross Castle director Loukas Tsarmaklis as saying the production has brought business to local taxis, shops, building suppliers, wholesale suppliers and hotels, mainly around Alness and Inverness. The report also states that 20% of the total economic impact between 2022 and 2025, over £4 million in GVA, is felt within Scotland's audiovisual sector.On production status, the foreword by Hayley Valentine, Director of BBC Scotland, says the show qualifies as a Scottish production under Ofcom's rules because it is made from a production base in Scotland and over half the spend on the production team goes to people living outside London. The report states that series one and two of the BBC's The Traitors qualified as Made out of London productions, and that the NBCU series, which make up roughly half of the commissioning volume, are not required to meet the same criteria. It also records that interviewees pointed to ongoing challenges, including the need for more studio space and post-production facilities in the Highlands, and the lack of clear pathways to long-term employment. The report concludes that the show "has proven to be a landmark production for Scotland". It also says Screen Scotland, Studio Lambert and the BBC have created training placements, and that spillover effects were acknowledged qualitatively but not quantified.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.