From Saturday 13 - Thursday 18 August, we were showcasing Scotland at Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, USA.
Our staff were there to meet with intermediary travel trade partners and to raise Scotland’s profile as a luxury and sustainable travel destination on the global stage.
Virtuoso is the leading global network of agencies specialising in luxury and experiential travel, with more than 20,000 advisors worldwide. Virtuoso partner with over 2,000 of the world’s best companies including hotels, on-sites and tour operators.
Virtuoso Travel Advisors use their personal connections and first-hand expertise to craft bespoke trips for clients, including unique experiences, special values, complimentary perks, VIP treatment and rare access.
Attendance at Virtuoso opens the door for our staff to meet with airline partners, key tour operators, and US Consumer and trade media outlets to pitch industry news stories and creating opportunities for to secure media coverage for Scotland’s product.
Throughout the week, our staff members Nicole Graham (Market Development Manager for USA) and Katy Reilly (Long Haul Marketing Manager) met with more than 240 travel specialists and advisors for one-to-one meetings, alongside hosting a bespoke and invite only welcome drinks reception with our Scotland industry partners.
This year, there was a strong focus on raising Scotland’s profile within the North America market.
Travel advisors are an important part of the travel network in North America, and our partnership with Virtuoso presents us with an opportunity to work closely with these advisors to deliver marketing activity and destination training.
This activity is crucial to showcasing our support to the travel trade, and ensures they are well-equipped with the product knowledge to sell Scotland as a sustainable and must-see destination.
We were also joined at Virtuoso Travel Week by some of Virtuoso’s Scottish members and preferred partners, which included:
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Gleneagles Hotel |
Cheval The Edinburgh Grand |
Fairmont St Andrews |
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Rocpool Reserve |
Kimpton Charlotte Square |
Cameron House Hotel |
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Old Course Hotel |
Waldorf Astoria |
The Balmoral |
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Red Carnation |
Inverlochy Castle |
Cromlix and Chez Roux |
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Crossbasket Castle |
Glenapp Castle |
Greywalls and Chez Roux |
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The Fife Arms |
Belmond Trains |
Luxury Scotland |
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Sleigh’s |
Dream Escape |
Moloney and Kelly |
Virtuoso Travel Week provided an excellent opportunity to connect with a high calibre of luxury travel advisors who indicated a strong interest in Scotland as a sought after travel destination for their client.
The week provided a fantastic insight into the luxury travel sector with pent up demand for Scotland evident. The team connected with over 240 advisors and a comprehensive follow-up process will now take place to ensure Scotland remains top of mind.
Last year we virtually attended Virtuoso Travel Week in 2021, following the continued impact of COVID-19.
Through our virtual attendance, we achieved over 200 engagements across the one-to-one appointment schedule and secured several additional networking opportunities.
Through the Virtuoso Travel Academy we ran a series of dedicated immersion sessions. We hosted four webinars in total, including three themed educational and inspirational webinars.
Our webinars focused on:
Each webinar offered an opportunity to highlight Scotland’s preferred suppliers and we worked with the DMC’s to create exclusive itineraries which were then featured.
Across our series of virtual events and live webinars, we received more than 400 advisor registrations – setting a record for the highest ever attended agent training delivered by a tourism board partner.
As part of Scotland Week in New York City during April 2022, we were able to host a live in-person destination training session.
This increased our engagement across high value tourism advisors across North America, and supported Scottish tourism businesses to promote existing product and contribute to product development opportunities.