Tourists visiting Glasgow yesterday were discovering an extra attraction.

As they mingled among the Glaswegians out for a day's shopping they found Yes and No campaigners firmly placing the independence debate on the streets as a must-see.

For anyone visiting Scotland in recent days, the referendum debate has been hard to miss. "We were in Edinburgh yesterday so we saw a huge rally of people who don't want it. And this morning we saw a huge rally of people who do want it," said Souyma Ghosh as he took pictures in George Square.

Originally from Bangalore and now based in London, Mr Ghosh was in town for the weekend with his friends Himadri Saha and Mayank Singhal. "We just came for a visit. Coincidentally it's a very historic weekend," said Mr Ghosh. "It's our first time in ­Scotland, but it's been pretty vibrant and interesting. The thing that struck us as outsiders it's been done with a lot of grace. There's no kind of violence and people in the community are being left to decide."

"I think there is respect for the different sides," added Mr Saha.

Also up from London for the weekend were Irish couple Andrew Masters and Orla Cummins. They had arrived last Friday and spent Saturday in the midst of the Yes rally in the city.

"We were over at Buchanan Street soaking it in," Ms Cummins said. "Yesterday everybody we saw was Yes. We had people throwing stickers and hats and things at us, and there were so few people saying they were No. They seemed a bit worried, scared almost."

Ms Cummins has a grandmother in Glasgow and so has been following the debate from a distance but, she added, few in London have been tuned into what has been going on. It's only in the last couple of weeks that down in London it's actually been in the papers. They've just only started to care."

Mr Masters said that on the whole he believes that independence would be good for Scotland. Helge Arne Winkelbauer isn't so sure however. "I think it would be fair if Scotland would separate and become a nation once again," the biology student from Hamburg said as he walked up Buchanan Street, "but I don't know if it's economically useful."

Mr Winkelbauer has just arrived in the city to study for a year. But it wasn't the politics of Scotland that had attracted him, it was music.

"I play the bagpipes. I started to play three years ago. I've already had my first lesson at the National Piping Centre." Whatever happens on Thursday, Mr Masters believes Scotland will be a different country after the vote. "I don't think Scotland will ever be the same because it's out there now. If it's Yes they'll get their independence but if it's No it still won't be the same." He also noted that the campaign for independence had been - for the most part -peaceful.

"We had to fight for ours," Mr Masters pointed out. "You just have to tick a box."