IT WAS a multi-million pound market for Glasgow’s tourism sector pre-Covid and now as restrictions ease the city is gearing itself up to lure visitors back with a new campaign.
Glasgow Life, which runs the city’s culture and leisure services, has teamed up with global travel website Expedia in a bid to attract more visitors from the USA, Canada and Germany who account for the most trips to the city.
The targeted marketing is aimed at inspiring visitors from the three countries to consider a future trip to Glasgow.
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The initiative is being implemented across three of the city’s core international markets to help drive the recovery of Glasgow’s visitor economy following the impact of the pandemic. Pre-Covid, the USA, Canada and Germany collectively accounted for 236,000 annual tourist trips to Glasgow and some £75 million in visitor spend.
Glasgow wants to attract visitors from its key markets
Running until the end of March this year, the digital campaign has been designed to widen awareness of the variety of cultural experiences visitors can enjoy as part of a trip to Glasgow as well as reinforce the message that the city’s tourism and hospitality industry is open for business.
Directing potential visitors to dedicated ‘Glasgow hub’ landing pages on Expedia’s website for their country, the campaign promotes airline access and tickets, hotel offers and profiles several of the city’s world-class visitor attractions and activities, including the £68.25m refurbishment and reopening of The Burrell Collection in March 2022.
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Glasgow Life’s campaign complements a national campaign, which is currently being run with Expedia by VisitScotland, aimed at encouraging more international visitors to consider Scotland in 2022. Glasgow Life and VisitScotland, together with Scottish Enterprise, are the partners collectively delivering Glasgow’s Tourism and Visitor Plan to 2023.
Councillor David McDonald, chairman of Glasgow Life and Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “Pre-Covid, international tourism in Glasgow reached a record high, with more than 770,000 overseas visitors spending more than £381m in the city. The majority of our international tourists come from Europe and North America – in 2019, Glasgow attracted more North American visitors than Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, and almost as many as those three cities combined.
“So it’s hugely important for our visitor economy, and the thousands of jobs that this supports across every part of our tourism and hospitality sector, that we continue to promote the city’s world-class cultural profile to our core international markets. And as one of the world’s leading and most trusted travel platforms, Expedia is the perfect partner to help amplify our reach and engagement with potential visitors through this joint campaign.”
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is one of the city's flagship tourist attractions
Before the pandemic international tourism in Glasgow reached a record high in 2019 – attracting 771,000 overseas visitors, with record spending at £381m, a nine per cent increase on the previous year.
International expenditure outperformed the Scottish average in 2019; at a national level spending increased seven per cent year on year to £2.5bn.
In the same year the city welcomed 2.5 million domestic and international visitors, generating an associated spend of £774 million for the local economy.
City businesses that are supporting and are profiled as part of Glasgow Life’s campaign include: Hampden Park Stadium and Museum Tour; Celtic Park Stadium Tour; Mackintosh at the Willow; Tennent’s Brewery Tour; City Sightseeing; Walking Tours in Glasgow; Red Bus Bistro; and Discover Scotland Tours. A number of leading city hotels are also offering discounts through the website links.
The Burrell Collection is due to reopen its doors to the public next month
Councillor McDonald added: “Last year, Glasgow was named by influential travel publication Condé Nast Traveller as the UK’s best city break destination, and at the same time we were again voted the world’s friendliest city by Rough Guides. From the near £70m refurbishment and redisplay of our iconic Burrell Collection, which reopens in March, to our UNESCO City of Music credentials, or our outstanding galleries and attractions, architectural heritage, thriving and diverse food and drink offer, and the warmth of our welcome, there are plenty of good reasons to visit Glasgow this year.”
Jim Clarkson, Regional Leadership Director (west), VisitScotland said: “Through our national marketing activity with Expedia we have been inspiring visitors to consider Scotland as their destination of choice when making future travel plans. We work closely with Glasgow Life on international marketing campaigns and this activity will be able to build on the recent success where Glasgow has been the second most popular destination in bookings from the US, based on total gross room nights booked through the online travel company.
“The city’s recovery from the pandemic is essential to Scotland’s visitor economy overall and we continue to work with our partners on key campaigns promoting Glasgow as a UNESCO City of Music and the return of the Burrell Collection in March.”
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