ABSTRACT
In this chapter I present an overview of the roots tourism phenomenon with which the book is concerned through the analysis of material collected via the questionnaire that featured on my research project’s web site. During the fieldwork phase of the research, I received 244 completed questionnaires, totalling some 80,000 words of comment from visitors and would-be visitors to Scotland on issues relating to genealogy, heritage tourism and Scottish diasporic consciousness. Although providing some additional commentary, my intention here is to resist interpretation and permit the ‘voices’ of the roots tourists themselves to be heard. Their insightful comments anticipate many of the themes around which subsequent, more analytical, chapters will revolve.
