THEY arrive in private jets often with an entourage in tow, with plans to indulge in an elite Scottish experience and with very deep pockets to pay for it.

Scotland’s new breed of high-rolling visitors may be here on holiday but most of us won’t see them – for these are not your typical Royal Mile tourists.

Instead, some of the world’s wealthiest people are pouring millions into hiring castles to stay in, chartering yachts and helicopters to whisk them from distilleries to golf courses, and private dinners with lairds and lords; demanding unique experiences that, it turns out, money really can buy.

Scotland is in the midst of a luxury holiday boom, and attracting rising numbers of enormously wealthy visitors desperate to indulge in adventures that most Scots would never imagine.

The sums of money involved can be eye-watering. One case Chinese visitor is said to have set aside £1.5 million for a three-day tour of the Highlands.

While that is at the extreme end of the scale, insiders say it’s not unusual for “average” visitors to spend £10,000 per person for a week, while others can easily spend double that on a single shopping spree at the House of Bruar.

One luxury tour operator said: “The sky is the limit. A lot of what’s going on is very discreet – most people don’t realise the amount of money flowing through the country.”

In many cases the millionaire tourist is looking to pay top dollar to share a dram with a whisky expert, play golf on a remote Hebridean course that most Scots have never heard of, or join scallop divers and fishermen off the west coast, rather than rub shoulders with the hoi polloi at the usual tourist haunts.

According to a report from Allied Market Research, the global luxury market is projected to be the fastest-growing area of the tourism sector, expected to be worth $1,154bn by 2022.

A key element is said to be demand from high-end travellers to gain deeper experiences of the places they visit, avoiding tourist hotspots in favour of highly-personalised trips.

VisitScotland has suggested income from “high-net-worth individuals” is forecast to rise by around 15% a year. Chief executive Malcolm Roughead said: “It is important that we encourage the tourism industry to provide world-class service, facilities, events and attractions to keep up with ever-changing consumer demands and ensure visitors continue to have memorable experiences.”

While luxury tour operators have always had a place in Scotland’s tourist sector, there are signs of a growing response to rising demand, from hotels offering bespoke packages, to firms specialising in personalised itineraries and road trip specialists who send tourists off in Aston Martins to tackle the North Coast 500 – at around £9,000 a pop.

Last week, five-star Edinburgh hotel The Glasshouse became the latest to join the luxury “experience” market with a two-night Elite Whisky Experience – costing £2,500 a head.

That buys two nights for two people at the hotel’s lavish Islay Suite overlooking Calton Hill, meals – including a seven-course whisky tasting dinner – guided tour of a distillery and the chance to explore the hotel’s selection of 150 whiskies with its whisky ambassador on hand to help with selections.

One company, Bravo Whisky Golf, which specialises in tailor-made golf packages which whisk visitors from course to course by chartered plane, is offering three nights in an Islay hotel and chartered plane to watch this year’s Open at Royal Portrush, plus a distillery tour and a round at Machrie Golf Links – for around £4,500.

“Typically, clients will spend $12,000 to $15,000 per head for golf, accommodation, flights, meals and drinks,” said Neil Scott Johnson, who co-founded Bravo Whisky Golf with his friend Paul Geddes. “These people have done Carnoustie, St Andrews and Turnberry and are looking for new experiences. They want to get home and say ‘The plane landed on this island beach and we played an amazing Old Tom Morris links course’.”

Among its tours is a 10-day “Odyssey” involving 10 flights and 11 golf courses – mostly on Hebridean islands or in the Highlands. Thrown in is dinner with a whisky aficionado and an evening on board the former royal yacht Britannia.

Wealthy visitors swoop into the country on board private jets and book up entire country houses or castles for their party at eye-watering costs, says Simeon Rosset, who runs Rosset Bespoke Butlers and is often called on to arrange high-end accommodation and staff for well-heeled visitors.

“You would never recognise them – they’re not travelling around in Rolls-Royces, they’re not that obvious. But they will go out on shopping trips to the House of Bruar and spend £20,000,” he said. “There’s huge money travelling through Scotland. A group of 10 staying for a week can easily spend £1m.”

If anything, he adds, there is a shortage of luxury produce for them to spend their money on. “This is high-level tourism and we need to persuade people to join in and provide what they want,” he said.

Specialist companies like Edinburgh-based Dream Escape promise “luxurious private cruises to exclusive access to historic castles and other elegant accommodation combined with Michelin-star dining”, with chauffeur-driven tours, adventure activities and private helicopters.

However, as well as the established players and the London-based high-end agencies, a new breed of “grass-roots” operators is also finding a niche within a massively wealthy market.

Chris Hunter of Luxury Concierge Scotland was running a chauffeur business when he spotted demand from wealthy visitors seeking “something different”.

He now organises bespoke tours, arranging castle accommodation, supercars for hitting the North Coast 500 and gourmet dining.

“I have a couple coming in June who want to tour in a car, so I’m organising a Porsche 911 for them. They want to stay in a castle on the west coast, and then there’s the obligatory helicopter tour, so they’ll go from the castle over to Skye for a distillery visit,” he said.

“These are people who can do spas and luxury hotels anywhere. What they want in Scotland are those experiences they can’t get anywhere else.”

French-born Solveig Kerdranvat and her fiancé Jonny Stage are the modern face of luxury travel in Scotland – images on their Sandgrouse website show her posing in a kilt gazing at island moorland, or “hunting-shooting” style beside a Land Rover.

The helicopter they use to ferry their clients on “distillery crawls” – involving stops at multiple distilleries across Scotland in a single day – features a familiar registration, G-TRMP, and was once used by Donald Trump.

Sandgrouse tours can hit £30,000 per person, while some special requests can prove particularly demanding.

“People are looking out-of-the-box experiences,” says Mr Stage. “For example, we take them to the Glenfinnan viaduct at just the right time to see the steam train passing. So they’re hovering above it rather than standing in the car park with everyone else.”

Wealthy tourists want to be able to impress their friends by doing something unique, he adds.

“They want to come to Scotland and be best buddies with the fishermen on the west coast, or have a great day diving for scallops or with a ghillie who’s been on an estate for 25 years.

“Then they go back to New York and talk about an amazing day with a guy on the hill who showed them the stags.

“That’s what luxury travel is about.”

TIE PIECE

A recovering global economy is fuelling a worldwide luxury travel sector currently said to be worth $110 billionn.

However, Scotland is hardly a new destination for the world’s super rich – after all, the Queen made a point of spending her summer break cruising the west coast in Britannia and staying at Balmoral, while Skibo Castle near Dornoch has been a retreat for the rich for decades.

Two years ago, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich took a west coast break when he moored his super yacht, Eclipse, in the Clyde.

Last year, billionaire mathematician James Simons parked his £75 million super yacht at various locations during a summer tour of Scotland. His net worth is estimated at £15bn.

Meanwhile, some of the richest people in the world have opted to create a more permanent holiday home.

The billionaire ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has taken over a 65,000-acre holiday estate in Inverinate, Wester Ross, and Russian drinks billionaire Yuri Shefler bought Tulchan Estate – a 21,000-acre property 40 miles south of Inverness said to boast some of the best salmon fishing in Europe.