A year on from Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games and we can begin assessing the legacy.
Last month the Scottish Government’s first official evaluation of the economic impact came out suggesting there had been a boost of £740 million to the Scottish economy and £340m to Glasgow.
I was glad to see research into the impact carries on right through to 2019.
That feels about right for making sure we’ve hammered home a permanent gain - especially since the 2018 European Sports Championships will be held within that timeframe.
We take an interest in the many strands of legacy, but for the Chamber a long term boost to leisure tourism in Glasgow is at the top of our wish list. The Games brought 690,000 folk to the city, spending £184m, and there are clear signs in both the Great Britain Tourism Survey and the UK International Passenger Survey that 2014 has been a very successful year for Glasgow.
Tourism visits grew by 37 per cent to 2.728 million, including a 20 per cent surge from overseas, moving Glasgow up one place to fifth most popular UK city for foreign tourists.
Domestic visits grew a powerful 56 per cent against a Scottish performance of just over three per cent, so we can certainly say the Games have had an immediate impact.
Are we building on that success? Despite the fairly dismal summer weather this year there are some positive signs that we are, with Glasgow Airport reporting last week that it was one of the fastest-growing airports in Europe in the first six months of 2015.
In June alone Glasgow traffic grew by 14.1 per cent.
We can’t say that the Games is wholly responsible for this since Amanda McMillan’s team at Glasgow Airport has added some 20 new destinations like Budapest, Munich and Halifax, Nova Scotia to its route schedule.
But I’d be surprised if the Games impact hasn’t been partly involved.
Hotel occupancy also looks healthy. The most recent BDO UK trends report shows Glasgow’s June 2015 occupancy growing by 3.6 per cent to a robust 91 per cent, making it fourth out of 48 UK cities, and room yield grew by a remarkable 21 per cent.
Next up for Glasgow is the World Gymnastics Championships in October, with over 600 gymnasts from 91 countries heading to the city, Olympics qualification in their minds.
Another wave of new visitors beckons and we’re told they’re a high spending lot.
It seems the tourism legacy, at least, is well within our grasp.
- Stuart Patrick is chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.
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