THE BIG Apple might know all about tourism but New Yorkers are being encouraged to book a visit to West Fife to visit the locations of hit TV show Outlander.

A VisitScotland bus hit the streets of Manhattan last weekend in a bid to entice visitors away from the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty and instead head to far-off Scotland to take in the sights of Culross, Limekilns and Charlestown.

On the same weekend as the second season of the smash-hit show launched on Amazon Prime, the bus took to the busy New York streets to promote Scotland on Sixth Avenue during the world-famous Tartan Day Parade.

This year, the parade’s Grand Marshall was Sam Heughan, the Dumfries & Galloway-born actor who stars as Jamie Fraser, the dashing Highland hero of Outlander.

He and Catriona Balfe, who co-stars as time-travelling nurse Claire Randall, are returning to UK screens for a second series of the romantic epic, which is shot in numerous locations around Scotland.

Last year, the likes of Culross, Charlestown and Limekilns, which all featured in series one, enjoyed a dramatic rise in visitor numbers and VisitScotland expects the return of the popular show to be further good news for the country’s tourism industry.

Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland, said: “Outlander has taken the world by storm and it is important that we capitalise on the continued success of a series in which Scotland really is the star.

"Hopefully it will encourage event more people to look into booking a trip to Scotland and explore the land that inspired Outlander.”

Based on the bestselling books by Diana Gabaldon, the Outlander television series is shown in the UK on Amazon Prime.

For more information on Outlander and Scotland, go to visitscotland.com/outlander