The numbers of North American tourists rose by one third in the year to the end of June as Scotland geared up for a bumper year of events.
The latest official figures highlight the pulling power of major festivities such as Homecoming Scotland, and the celebrations around the anniversary of Bannockburn, which included a festival of Scottish clans, with many of those visiting travelling from across the Atlantic.
But the total number of visitors to Scotland dropped as fewer tourists from the rest of the UK ventured north in the early summer, according to the Office For National Statistics.
There were 510,000 visitors from America and Canada in 2013/14, against 385,000 the previous year, up 32 per cent.
The increase contributed to an 18 per cent overall rise in overseas holidaymakers, up from about 2.2 million to 2.6m, but domestic visitor numbers declined 7 per cent.
Taking domestic and overseas travellers together, the total number of visitors to Scotland dropped 4 per cent.
Spending by tourists from abroad increased from almost £1.5 billion to more than £1.6bn, while spending by UK visitors stayed the same.
Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing hailed the "impressive" North American figures and said the Year Of Homecoming campaign and the promotion of Scotland as the "home of golf" ahead of the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles had encouraged more visitors to enjoy Scotland and contributed to the overseas visitor boost.
He said: "The people at Scottish tourism's frontline, the staff in our hotels, cafes, restaurants and tourist attractions, are delivering results and providing a memorable experience for visitors from home and abroad."
Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of tourism agency VisitScotland, said: "2014 is the year we predicted Scotland would welcome the world. With a significant increase in overseas visitors, it seems we have done just that.
"This year has taken Scotland's profile and reputation to great heights and we are determined to make the most of this for the future.
"As we head into the 2015 Year Of Food And Drink and beyond, we will look to develop and build on all we have achieved. It is our turn to get out there and take Scotland to the world and ensure every single corner of the globe has heard of all we have to offer from innovative venues and hotels to breathtaking scenery and adventurous opportunities."
In recent years efforts to boost the lucrative American and Canadian market have included opening new air routes and marketing Scotland abroad.
Since 2012, development efforts have delivered more than 80 new routes to Scottish airports, including Chicago, Philadelphia, and Doha, the capital city of Qatar, with more announced for 2015.
In the last year alone, major inbound routes will have delivered hundreds of thousands of additional seats bringing visitors to Scotland, according to officials.
l The National Trust for Scotland's Battle of Bannockburn Visitor Centre has celebrated its 50,000th visitor since opening in March.
Lynn Forney Young, from Texas, was crowned 50,000th visitor to the site yesterday as the centre celebrates the year of the 700th anniversary of the 1314 battle.
Ms Young was visiting as part of a Daughters Of The American Revolution tour group.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article