VisitScotland has launched a campaign to convert American interest in Scotland’s football fans into visits, as the country lines up a packed calendar of sporting events through the summer and into 2027.
The national tourism body is leaning on the profile of the Tartan Army, Scotland’s travelling supporters, whose warmth and humour have drawn attention across the United States. The campaign invites US travellers to “follow them home” and explore the wider destination.
The summer’s centrepiece is the Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2026, running from 23 July to 2 August. The sporting programme is paired with the Glasgow 2026 Festival, from 23 May to 9 August, a summer-long run of performances, installations, music and community events. Barbie: The Exhibition adds to the city’s cultural draw. New direct United Airlines flights from Newark to Glasgow are making the city easier to reach for US visitors.
Scotland’s football heritage features heavily. Glasgow is home to Football’s Square Mile, billed as the world’s largest open-air football museum, the Scottish Football Museum and the Glasgow Football Tour. Nearby Stirling holds the world’s oldest known football, dating to the 1500s, at The Smith Art Gallery & Museum. Eriskay Football Pitch, on a Hebridean island off the west coast, has been recognised by FIFA as one of the eight most remarkable football locations in the world.
The calendar extends well beyond this summer. In July 2027, the Tour de France Grand Départ arrives in Scotland, with Stage 1 setting off from Edinburgh on 2 July and sweeping south through the Scottish Borders before crossing into England. From 11 to 18 July 2027, St Andrews hosts the 155th Open Championship, five years on from the 150th Open in 2022, which drew a record 290,000 fans.
Why it matters for the trade
This is a clear long-lead booking signal for anyone selling Scotland into the North American market. VisitScotland is stacking marquee events across an 18-month window, and the new Newark-Glasgow United service removes a long-standing access friction for US visitors, giving agents a concrete reason to build Glasgow into summer 2026 programmes around the Commonwealth Games.
The bigger commercial opportunity sits in 2027, where the Tour de France Grand Départ and the Open at St Andrews are exactly the kind of fixed-date, high-demand anchors that justify early packaging and accommodation blocks, particularly across Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders and Fife.
The football-heritage angle gives operators a ready-made themed itinerary to sell to a sports-minded audience that may not yet think of Scotland as a football destination, and the events calendar offers a useful way to spread demand beyond the traditional honeypots and shoulder seasons.