Visitor numbers to Scotland fall by 12% 10 January 2013 Last updated at 10:14 The number of tourists visiting Scotland fell sharply last summer, according to official figures. The number of nights travellers spent in the country between July and September fell by more than 100,000 - or 12% - on the same period in 2011. The amount they spent also dropped by about £50m, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. In London, overnight visits during the same period fell by 5% while spend increased by 13%. At the end of the summer, tourist body VisitScotland said it planned to spend £3m on an autumn advertising campaign after describing the holiday season as "challenging." VisitScotland chairman Mike Cantlay said: "It is encouraging to see that Scottish tourism has continued to perform well over the past year, in part due to a strong start to 2012, but it has undoubtedly been a challenging summer for Scottish tourism. However, given the wet weather during the summer months and the economic problems being experienced around the world, these figures could have been considerably worse. We also witnessed the astonishing success of the Olympics, an event that attracted a number of Scotland's prospective visitors to London and kept domestic visitors at home. He added: "These figures are also compared to 2011, which was a particularly strong year for Scottish tourism."