Skip to main content
Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 11/07/2023

Introduction from Destination Development Director Caroline Warburton

Welcome to the April to June 2023 quarterly edition of our regional industry update for the Glasgow City Region, with an overview of some of the ways we’ve been promoting and supporting tourism in the area over the last few months. 

With the season almost in full swing, we are hearing encouraging signs from tourism and events businesses about the season ahead. We know that challenges certainly remain for the industry, however as the schools break up for the summer holidays, the appetite for holidaying in Scotland is strong, from both the domestic and international markets.

The big ticket for this summer is the UCI Cycling World Championships which are just around the corner and which will put a global spotlight on Glasgow. The global event will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city between 3-13 August with the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Emirates Arena, Glasgow BMX Arena, George Square and Glasgow Green all hosting events.

That comes on top of another great programme of music and cultural events including Piping Live! and the Cut and Run Banksy exhibition. And huge congratulations to The Burrell Collection on winning the UK Art Fund Museum of the Year Award – and in its 40th birthday year too!

Read on for more information on our activity to support tourism and events in Glasgow City Region.

Marketing Glasgow City Region

  • New Glasgow City Region content on visitscotland.com

    Check out new content added to visitscotland.com featuring Glasgow City Region:

  • The “baffies” are back

    Our popular Heilan Coo “baffies” campaign with Caledonian Sleeper and Glasgow Life went live last month (June).    

    This exciting new campaign encourages overnight train travel from London, waking up to the magic of Glasgow and beyond. We're using a mix of digital billboards in London Underground, social media adverts and influencer activity. Images of our “baffies on tour” appear in a variety of locations including Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Pollok House and Country Park, Glasgow Botanic Gardens and the University of Glasgow.

  • Glasgow - the perfect dual destination trip

    Glasgow’s accommodation and visitor experiences featured in campaign which was part of VisitBritain’s Gateway Innovation Fund. We worked alongside London & Partners in partnership with Expedia Group Media Solutions and Caledonian Sleeper to deliver the campaign, which aimed to drive visits and spend from target audiences in the US. The campaign generated $37.8 million of gross bookings.

Glasgow City Region on social (April – June)

2.55 million reach

Number of times Greater Glasgow content reached people on social media

189,740+ engagements

Reactions, likes, comments, shares and saves of Greater Glasgow posts

Over 610,500 reached

Top performing post by reach was an image of Highland Cows taken in North Lanarkshire

The power of PR

Corporate PR for Glasgow City Region

Some of our recent highlights include: 

  • Destination Development Director Caroline Warburton was interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland to discuss the impact of the Banksy: Cut and Run Exhibition
  • Sent broadcast audio featuring Regional Partnerships Executive Martin Breslin to commercial radio stations discussing the prospects for tourism in the region for the summer
  • A press release focusing on the Glasgow City Region businesses and familiarisation trip at VisitScotland Connect and some of the regional businesses that attended
  • A press release encouraging local businesses to enter the Scottish Thistle Awards

To view all the press releases, visit our media centre.

Hear from our regional iCentre team

The Glasgow iCentre team have reported another busy few months, welcoming visitors from all over the world.

This has included cruise ship passengers arriving in large numbers in Glasgow city centre as well as Rothesay and Oban. The team have seen a buzz around the city with the new Banksy: Cut and Run exhibition with lots of visitor enquiries about it.

As always, pop in and say hello to our iCentre teams – they'd all love to hear from you.

Scotland's Year of Stories evaluation

Find out more about the full impact of Scotland's Year of Stories 2022 with key insights, learnings and results.
 

Read the full evaluation

Future Themed Year

We're asking for your help to scope out options for a future Themed Year. Our Themed Years celebrate the very best of Scotland and its people. Take part in our survey – it’s open until 20 July 2023.

Complete the survey

Cycling | getting into gear

Sustrans Scotland has created a great cycling routes map with support from VisitScotland, which is hosted on visitscotland.com. The map has had over 140,000 page views this year so far and includes eight long distance routes and 61 day trip suggestions including many in and around Glasgow City Region. More routes will be added to the map in future.

It's a great resource to share with your visitors, especially this year as we gear up to host the first ever combined UCI Cycling World Championships.

View the map.

 

screen shot of the Sustrans cycle map

2023 UCI Cycling World Championships | all you need to know

We've pulled together a handy guide for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.

Find out about the events happening across Scotland and in your local area to keep your visitors "on track".

Read the article

brand identify image person on a bike raising their hands

UCI Cycling World Championships

The UCI Cycling World Championships is the first event of its kind ever created with some 13 world championships events taking place from 3 - 13 August this year across Glasgow and Scotland. 

Find out more information about route and race schedules on their website.

They've also created a handy business guide including information on how businesses can prepared and get involved in the Championships as well as advice and guidance on travel and transport. Check out their Business Guide.

Local businesses | Get Ready Glasgow

Businesses are being encouraged to get ready and plan ahead as anticipation builds for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships that takes place across the city and Scotland in just over three weeks’ time. A news release from Get Ready Glasgow shared information on routes, races, road closures and more. 

News update from Get Ready Glasgow.

 

Taking Scotland to the trade

Our intermediary marketing teams undertake an extensive annual programme of activity. This allows us to take Scotland to the world in collaboration with our network of global tour operators and travel agents. We work with this network to promote Scottish experiences and products that are relevant to their clients.

Our platforms include enewsletters, webinars, trade events and market relevant social media channels. Some recent activity has included:

  • Cali Bruich, House For An Art Lover and Pollok Country Park were featured within Weibo posts and WeChat
  • Glasgow and Celtic Connections were featured in a welcome programme to around 3000 North America travel advisors
  • Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Voco Grand Central, The Riverside Museum were among the many businesses featured in our market webinar to the North America market

VisitScotland Connect 2023

VisitScotland Connect is our biggest business-to-business event for the travel trade. This year, the event took place at the P&J Live in Aberdeen in April. Many tourism businesses from Dundee and Angus attended, including Dakota Hotels, The Clydeside Distillery and DiMaggio's Restaurant Group to name a few. 

Event success in numbers:

  • around 175 tourism businesses in attendance
  • more than 250 global tour operators, guides and travel agents attended
  • buyers represented from 23 countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Europe, China, and Asia Pacific
  • over 6,000 meetings held

room of people sitting around separate tables discussing business

VisitScotland Connect 2023

Related links