I recently returned from a week’s tourism learning journey to North Iceland, otherwise known as North Iceland Culinary Experience: Innovate, Develop, Taste! (NICE). Like the rest of my group I’m buzzing with ideas about how to share what I’ve learned with others in my industry and beyond and look forward to working on this in the coming weeks and months. Read more
Travel Massive Edinburgh welcomed the world on Thursday 27 August, with event sponsors Festivals Edinburgh at the G&V Royal Mile Hotel and a strong turn-out from the local travel community.
With six international festivals in full swing in the city, including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, bringing participation from 70 countries, and since Travel Massive connects thousands of people within the travel industry around the world, the theme of welcoming the world seemed appropriate.
The Travel Massive Edinburgh August event welcomed over 50 travel professionals including guests from Qatar Airways, Edinburgh Airport, VisitScotland, Skyscanner, Booking.com, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotch Broth Events, ETAG, Haggis Adventures, Yelp Edinburgh, Mercat Tours, new tour company Glasgow Music City Tours; travel bloggers, accommodation providers and more.
Edinburgh Chapter leaders Lesley Judge of Smart Tourism and Katy Duncan of Haggis Adventures welcomed guests and set the scene for the evening’s event, handing over to Festivals Edinburgh Marketing Manager Susan Russell.
Susan Russell, Lesley Judge and Katy Duncan
Susan took guests through an entertaining whistle-stop tour of the Edinburgh festivals’ history – they started in 1947 – and only the World Cup and the Olympics have a bigger audience. 70 countries take part and the impact on the city is impressive and far-reaching, drawing in 4.2m attendees and generating £261m of revenue, offering diverse business opportunities for all travel and tourism businesses.
Susan Russell of Festivals Edinburgh
We learned that the Edinburgh festivals don’t just take place in August –there are 12 of them, and Edinburgh is a festival city pretty much all year round, with a diverse range of events. Susan ended her talk with a great video of some of the amazing performers and authors who have enriched the Edinburgh Festivals over the years.
Travel Massive Edinburgh August 2015
General Manager Dale Simpson of the G&V Royal Mile Hotel gave everyone a warm welcome, updating guests on the latest news regarding the transformation of the hotel rooms and spaces. A special thank you to Dale and his team and to hotel staff members Melanie and Riccardo who were incredibly helpful and friendly, and who looked after everyone brilliantly, keeping them fed and watered.
GM Dale Simpson from G&V Royal Mile Hotel
Festival tickets up for grabs in our Twitter contest included shows from Adam Hills and Jason Byrne, as well as tickets for the Festival Fireworks concert and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party. The lucky winners were Anna Morris of The Edinburgh Address, Christopher Davidson of Haggis Hostels, Carol Howley of Skyscanner, Pippa Ratky of VisitScotland and Mags McNeil of ETAG.
Susan Russell of Festivals Edinburgh and winner Carol Howley from Skyscanner
The Festivals Edinburgh social wall kept everyone entertained with the latest Twitter and Instagram feeds from the evening, and there was plenty of information on Edinburgh Festivals on a touch screen and in print for guests.
Everyone enjoyed plenty of excellent networking, festival chat and lots of laughs. The feedback from guests was positive as usual, with many new guests already looking forward to repeating the experience. Some guests had to nip off early to festival shows and after some post-event dinner, several headed off to shows which ran on into the wee small hours.
Travel Massive Edinburgh would like to thank the growing travel community for attending, Festivals Edinburgh for sponsoring our event and the team at G&V Royal Mile Hotel Edinburgh for helping to make it a success.
With festivals still firmly on our minds, many look forward to the start of the Edinburgh Mela this weekend and to squeezing the very last drop out of Edinburgh’s festival city this August.
Check out tweets from the event via #travelmassive #edinburgh.
Sign up to Travel Massive Edinburgh and connect with others in the local community and across the globe.
If you’re interested in sponsoring an event or you have an idea for a future event, please get in touch.
New vessel ‘The Rebel’ swaps French Riviera for Scotland’s Highland Haven to help more visitors hunt for Nessie
Leading UK cruise operator Loch Ness by Jacobite unveiled a new vessel on Thursday 20 August to take even more tourists along Scotland’s largest loch.
Launched by ‘flying Scotsmen’ in kilts, the new boat is one of the company’s largest investments to date, increasing its fleet to four and allowing Loch Ness’ only five-star cruise company to host an additional 800 visitors per day on one of Scotland’s most iconic vistas.
Aptly named ‘The Rebel’, this latest addition is part of a £1 million investment which will allow Loch Ness by Jacobite to further support economic growth in the local area and Scotland.
Reaching top speeds of up to 12 knots, the boat was originally designed and built in France, where it sailed between Cannes, Nice and St Tropez before traveling to the Scottish Highlands.
After recently moving its head office to new visitor-friendly premises at Dochgarroch on the Caledonian Canal, The Rebel’s arrival also comes in the same year the firm launched a new brand after almost four decades in business.
The new ‘Loch Ness by Jacobite’ brand is already becoming a familiar sight around the loch for both locals and visitors, and can be found on the company’s fleet as well as at its new headquarters.
Freda Newton, managing director, Loch Ness by Jacobite, said: “The introduction of The Rebel along with our new headquarters and rebrand provides us with the perfect opportunity to strengthen our international appeal, building on Scotland’s natural strengths.
“The Loch Ness Monster is a hugely popular global attraction and we wanted to make sure that we could accommodate the ever-growing interest in exploring the area by water.
“It is great to be able to give our new vessel such a splashing Scottish welcome as we prepare to carry more people on a journey of discovery around Loch Ness.”
The company’s growth marks the 40-year-old attraction’s strategy to attract more international visitors to the world renowned site and position Loch Ness by Jacobite as the best way to experience the magic of the water.
Unlike the loch’s legendary occupant – the Loch Ness Monster – the colourful fleet already attracts over 100,000 tourists a year from every corner of the globe. And now armed with a new name and additional boat there will be no mistaking its authority on the loch.
This latest investment has been supported with funding by Highlands and Island Enterprise and the Bank of Scotland.
Barrie Aird, SME banking relationship manager at Bank of Scotland, said: “Loch Ness by Jacobite reflects the vibrant tourism industry that Scotland is renowned for. This is a very exciting venture to be part of as we’re committed to supporting the growth of local businesses and economies.
“Jacobite is going from strength to strength and this latest investment in The Rebel highlights the demand for its services which cater for the growing number of tourists visiting the area. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the business and seeing what the future holds.”
Nicola Douglas, head of business growth at HIE for the Inner Moray Firth team, said: “We have worked with Loch Ness by Jacobite for a number of years and we are delighted to support their latest venture. Loch Ness is a destination that attracts visitors from across the world and the new vessel The Rebel adds to the high quality experience offered by the company. We wish Loch Ness by Jacobite all the best and look forward to working with them in the future.”
Established in 1975 by Inverness quarry master the late Dan MacWilliam, Jacobite has continued to evolve through the decades to provide a five-star range of cruising and touring experiences on the stunning Loch Ness.
Originally a popular attraction for those in the Highlands, Loch Ness by Jacobite has grown its international audience since its inception and now boasts visitors from all over the world, including the USA, Malaysia and Australia.
Based in Inverness, Loch Ness by Jacobite now operates a fleet of four luxury vessels, the Jacobite Queen, the Jacobite Princess, the Jacobite Warrior, and now the Jacobite Rebel, offering daily trips on the world famous Loch.
To find out more about Loch Ness by Jacobite visit: www.jacobite.co.uk or follow @Jacobitecruises
To hear what Nessie has to say, follow @RealNessie
Scottish Visitor Attractions Encouraged to Shout about Successes
ASVA, The Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions, has opened entries to members for its annual Marketing Award and is encouraging attractions large and small across the country to apply for the award.
The prestigious marketing award, in its 10th year, celebrates excellence, innovation and creativity in marketing by Scottish visitor attractions, with past winners including Our Dynamic Earth, Stirling Castle and The Scottish Seabird Centre.
Laura Adamson, Marketing Manager of The Scottish Seabird Centre, 2014 ASVA Marketing Award Winner for its campaign ‘Puffin’tastic Fun’ said:
“Applying for an award can be a difficult process – there are not many of us who are that keen on ‘blowing our own trumpets! Winning the 2014 ASVA Marketing Award was a great boost, not only for me, but for the entire Seabird team, as our Puffin festival campaign had been a real team effort. There are the benefits of being recognised by your peers, by the industry and gaining increased exposure, but ultimately knowing that you all worked together to achieve something award-winning gives you a real sense of achievement.
Winning is brilliant, but even entering for the award is extremely worthwhile – I would highly recommend taking the time to reflect on the great job your team is doing and shouting about it.”
ASVA’s mission is: ’To support and inspire Scottish visitor attractions to deliver sustainable, world class experiences’ and the annual ASVA Awards (open to ASVA members) offer a fantastic opportunity to gain recognition not only from industry peers but from visitors, in terms of the creativity, innovation and quality of Scotland’s visitor attractions.
The closing date for award entries is 14 September 2015.
For more information on the 2015 ASVA Marketing Award email info@asva.co.uk or visit www.asva.co.uk
These boots are made for walking….
Glasgow Music City Tours is a new tour company which offers guided walks of the city’s music venues, past and present.
Launching to the public in July 2015, the company’s tour schedule begins with four bespoke tours of the Merchant City. Part of the Merchant City Festival, all four events will culminate with a unique show from a different musical artist in Mono Café Bar.
The company is owned and run by Fiona Shepherd, Alison Stroak and Jonathan Trew. All three have extensive experience of music journalism or publishing in Scotland and see the tours as a unique opportunity to promote Glasgow’s vibrant music scene and its fascinating heritage as a music city.
The company’s knowledgeable tour guides are musicians, DJs and writers who are well placed to bring alive the stories of the legendary performers who have stayed, played and made music in the UK’s only UNESCO City of Music.
From August, the company will run two weekly tours, each lasting approximately 1.5-2 hours:
Glasgow’s Music Mile tells the tale of city centre venues from the Concert Hall to King Tut’s, via the former site of the Apollo. The tour ends at King Tut’s where guests will have the opportunity to take selfies on the stage. Takes place on Saturday afternoons.
Merchant City Music: Past and Present explores the iconic venues of the Merchant City and East End from Britannia Panopticon Music Hall to Barrowland Ballroom. Takes place on Friday afternoons.
Glasgow Music City Tours will be running press trips for both tours in July. See below for dates.
‘Glasgow is a music city through and through,’ said Jonathan Trew, director of Glasgow Music City Tours. ‘The city hosts an average of 130 different music events every week and Glasgow’s audiences and venues are famous for their passion and atmosphere.
‘Whether you remember seeing David Bowie at The Apollo, Paolo Nutini at King Tut’s or are looking forward to Texas at The Hydro, Glasgow Music City Tours offers an entertaining exploration of the places, people and performances, which have shaped the city’s musical landscape.’
Information:
Glasgow’s Music Mile press tour is on Saturday 18th July, starting at noon.
The Merchant City Music tour is on Tuesday 21st July at 2pm. Contact the team if you would like to come along.
Merchant City Festival tours: Sunday 26th, Thursday 30th, Friday 31st July and Sunday 2nd August.
Twitter: @GlasMusicTour
For more info or interviews: Jonathan Trew M: 07803 204 563
jonathan@glasgowmusiccitytours.com
The May 2015 Travel Massive Edinburgh event kicked off in style on Thursday 28th, at the offices of sponsors 80 Days, An Occupancy Marketing Company.
Travel Massive Edinburgh! (Photo: Katalin Som)
Guests from the Edinburgh travel community enjoyed drinks and stunning views from our venue across to Edinburgh Castle – even a rainbow appeared, enhancing the postcard-perfect backdrop.
Edinburgh Castle views! (Photo: Natalie Allera)
After a warm welcome to guests from Edinburgh Chapter Leader Katy Duncan, our 10 minute talks kicked off with Mark Forrester, Managing Director of 80 Days, An Occupancy Marketing Company, and our venue sponsor for the evening, on the state of luxury travel in the UK.
80 Days/Occupancy Marketing MD Mark Forrester kicking off the talks. (Photo: 80 Days, An Occupancy Marketing Company)
Guests learned that a typical online purchase journey in travel takes 24 days and 21.6 visits to 9.4 sites (from Google via Occupancy) and that search queries in the luxury travel category (UK) grew by 8% in the first quarter.
We were fortunate to have Edinburgh School of Food and Wine sponsor some beautiful canapés for our guests to enjoy during the evening – guests enjoyed Marinated Bocconcini watermelon, smoked salmon with pickled cucumber, quail egg with celery stick, and roast cinnamon pear en croute – all stunning.
Delicious canapes from Edinburgh School of Food and Wine. (Photo: Kim Kjaerside).
The school’s founder, Ian Pirrie, gave an interesting talk about the school, its development and activities and how it works with others in the industry.
Ian Pirrie from Edinburgh School of Food and Wine.
As for the delicious canapés, the only sharing that was involved seemed to be in photo and in Tweet form – they certainly made an impact on our guests – thank you again, Ian and ESFW!
Our final speaker, Natalie Allera, Marketing Manager for The Bonham Hotel Edinburgh and Starwood Capital/Hayley Principal Hotels, updated the travel community on recent developments for the hotel group in Edinburgh and Glasgow, meaning that a new group of hotels has been formed, comprising The Bonham, The George Hotel and The Roxburghe Hotel in Edinburgh, together with Blythswood Square and The Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow.
Marketing Manager Natalie Allera of The Bonham Hotel with prize winner Eva Sturm of TravelResponsibly
Natalie kindly sponsored a tasty prize of dinner for two at The Bonham Hotel Edinburgh and she was delighted to congratulate the prize winner, Eva Sturm (@trvlresponsibly) of New Edinburgh Tours (@neweditours) who won the prize in our Twitter contest, using the hashtag #bonhamlux.
Thanks again from Katy, Julie and Lesley at Travel Massive Edinburgh to all of our very generous sponsors, 80 Days, An Occupancy Marketing Company, for offering us a brilliant venue, great atmosphere, drinks and more, to the Edinburgh School of Food and Wine for memorable canapés and to The Bonham Hotel Edinburgh for a great prize – our guests agreed that they all made our May event special.
Enjoying Travel Massive Edinburgh May 2015 at the lovely Occupancy offices.
Thank you also to the Travel Massive community in Edinburgh who have been incredibly supportive, attending our events, offering suggestions and ideas for future events and coming up with great offers of sponsorship. We are really enjoying building on this as well as seeing people connect and network, and it’s encouraging to see new faces at each event.
Edinburgh festivals & events banter at Travel Massive Edinburgh
We look forward to engaging with the Edinburgh travel community at more #TravelMassive #Edinburgh events planned for this summer – the next event is scheduled for August.
Find out more about Travel Massive at www.travelmassive.com
Register in the Travel Massive Edinburgh chapter
Tweet the chapter leaders: @katyonthego @lesleyjudge @zurika – or email editravelmassive@gmail.com
In this guest blog, Aileen Lamb, Tourism Manager, Scottish Enterprise, talks about the activities and impact of the Destination Leaders Programme and a recent learning journey to the city of Amsterdam.
The Destination Leaders Programme – developed by Scottish Enterprise – is a first in Europe and by May 2015 thirty eight individuals will have graduated with an Executive Certificate in Leadership awarded by Edinburgh Napier University.
The second DLP cohort, pictured above, recently spent 48 hours with senior tourism operators in Amsterdam, who shared insights on how they’ve grown their business through collaboration. We learned that our Dutch colleagues are managing peaks in demand from visitors in Amsterdam city centre with smart visitor dispersal plans. The group was keen to hear how Marketing Amsterdam (the destination organisation) has helped simplify to manage a complex range of partners delivering tourism.
Attendees from Edinburgh were pleased that the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) model for destination collaboration was identified as best practice and something which Amsterdam was learning from.
Some tips which can be applied by our Destination Leaders to help grow tourism here in Scotland included:
Before the group set sail on a canal tour of the city our group was hosted by ijVenues. This is an impressive, innovative new collaboration which can host 1,900 conference delegates just 5 minutes from the centre of the city.
The partners, 5 star Movenpick hotels; Passenger Terminal Amsterdam and the state owned Bimhuis (one of the world’s Top 10 live music and jazz venues) have significantly increased revenues and sales by delivering an integrated product. The hotel now reports 89% occupancy, much of this from new business tourism guests, and Movenpick will embed this collaborative model across their brand worldwide.
There was a great feeling of optimism amongst our Destination Leaders who have taken their learning on destination leadership and will be putting it into practice in their final projects and within their destinations and tourism developments in Scotland.
DLP participant Annabel Meikle of The Whisky Belle said: “What struck me is the openness of the Dutch people, the openness that they have working together in collaboration with other businesses and not seeing that as a threat. I was struck by the leadership and the trust: that the ability to trust allowed the partners to develop their businesses and so the experience that they could offer visitors was much bigger and much more valuable and enjoyable as a result.”
Aileen Lamb, Tourism Manager, Scottish Enterprise, 23rd March 2015.
Find out more about the Destination Leaders Programme course content.
Six travel bloggers living in Scotland have joined forces to launch a year-round digital campaign to promote their country as a travel destination.
Douglas Baird (Baird Travels), Kay Gillespie (The Chaotic Scot), Kim Kjaerside (Kim Kjaerside Photography), Neil Robertson (Locomotion Scotland), Nicola Holland (FunkyEllas Travel) and Susanne Arbuckle (Adventures Around Scotland) make up Scotland’s first travel blogger collaboration, known collectively as Scotlanders.
Working with destinations, organisations and events across the country, the Scotlanders will create a wealth of digital content which will be promoted on their blogs and across seven social media channels to a combined following of over 30,000 people in excess of one hundred countries. Their primary objective is to inspire international and local visitors to discover the best and most unique experiences in Scotland through their stories, high quality images and short videos. Their passion for Scotland is unrivalled and evident in the expertise and travel experience they have gained over the years.
Indiviudually the Scotlanders are extensively travelled worldwide and have established successful travel blogs, working on campaigns with The Commonwealth Games, SYHA, The National Trust for Scotland, Cool Places UK, #blogmanay and Welcome to Fife.
They recognise the potential in working together to increase the impact and exposure of their content, something which is reflected in their campaign motto “Exploring Scotland Together”. The group met in Glasgow earlier this year to discuss the project and have been in regular contact in preparation for the launch.
The group’s first official project launched on Saturday 28th March in the city of Dundee. Each blogger covered a specific theme; Dundee as a tourism/cruise ship destination, culture, design, food, the outdoors, family activities; and all promoted their experiences on social media using #Scotlanders with blog articles to follow. Councillor Will Dawson and spokesperson for Dundee, One City Many Discoveries said:
“We are delighted to welcome ‘The Scotlanders’ digital media group to Dundee. This is is a great opportunity to promote Dundee and Broughty Ferry to a national and international visitor audience through six specialist travel blogs and supporting social media. These online articles will communicate the variety of unique experiences a visitor can expect to enjoy when in Dundee, encouraging new visitors to include Dundee in their travel schedules.”
Several members of the group recently participated in a campaign in Linlithgow, organised by Emma Chalmers of Mary’s Meanders. The content generated significant interest on social media and provided an insight into the likely success of future projects.
The Scotlanders envisage that they will be involved in various projects in the coming months and are already in discussions with tourism industry contacts who have noted their interest in working together.
The group are attending Visit Scotland Expo in Aberdeen on the 23rd April to promote the campaign and seek out potential opportunities.
The Scotlanders can be contacted at www.TheScotlanders.com and via social media channels to discuss potential partnerships.
In this guest blog, Kenneth Wardrop, Edinburgh Institute Programme Leader for the Destination Leaders Programme at Edinburgh Napier University shares his thoughts on the recent DLP learning journey to Amsterdam.
Robert Louis Stevenson famously said: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” In this context the benefits of taking our current group of Destination Leaders Programme participants on a learning journey to Amsterdam, created the opportunity to gain an external perspective and to reflect back on the operations and competitive positioning of our destinations – Edinburgh, Argyll and the Isles and Scotland.
The visit which was hosted by Amsterdam Marketing proved inspiring. Amsterdam Marketing’s Director of Marketing, Geerte Udo, provided powerful insights in to the success of the ‘Iamsterdam’ brand and global place marketing, the value of alignment of destination messaging, the power of a shared and clear vision for the destination, strong leadership provided by Amsterdam Marketing, and the benefits of collaboration.
On the learning journey the group were also hosted by the Van Gogh Museum , a commercially dynamic and creative cultural venue, and IJVenues : ‘Amsterdam’s first Music and Conference centre’, which provided a powerful case study on the ‘value-add’ that can be achieved through product innovation and cooperation. EI staff and the DLP participants were very appreciative of the time given by tourism industry colleagues in Amsterdam in sharing their experiences and insights with the group.
Following the visit DLP participants commented that the value of the learnings and insights gained over the past 5 months of the Programme all became apparent on this learning journey.
Diane McRae, Senior Event Manager at the Royal Yacht Britannia and DLP 2014/15 Participant said: “For me a key learning point from Amsterdam is that collaboration in the city comes across strongly from the top down and the ground level up, with the destination taking the experience from this collective approach and positively moving it forward, this is something our destination can learn from.”
Kenneth Wardrop, Associate, Edinburgh Institute Programme Leader for the DLP, 22 March 2015.
Programme information:
Based on an internationally acclaimed initiative originating from Melbourne, Australia, the Destination Leaders Programme (DLP) is a unique opportunity to build a new leadership model for Scottish tourism. Participants play an active role in helping position Edinburgh, St. Andrews and Argyll as world leading tourism destinations. Now in it’s second year, the second programme commenced in October 2014 and by May 2015, thirty-eight indiviuals will have graduated.
The DLP pilot programme was developed in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University and delivered by the Edinburgh Institute – the commercial arm of Edinburgh Napier University’s Business School – in partnership with Scottish Enterprise.
Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions publishes 2014 Annual Visitor Trend Report
A record number of visits were made to Scotland’s visitor attractions in 2014. Newly published research shows an increase of 6.1% on 2013.
The announcement comes as the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions (ASVA) issues the findings of its 2014 Annual Visitor Trend Report.
Analysis of statistics submitted by over 250 of the organisation’s member sites confirms that 27,141,519 visits were made to visitor attractions across Scotland in 2014, a rise of 6.1% on 2013 figures.
The number of Scottish sites attracting over 1 million visits doubled to six in 2014, compared with three in 2013.
For the fourth year, the National Museum of Scotland was the most visited attraction with 1,639,509 visits recorded (free entry). Edinburgh Castle was once again the most visited paid for attraction with 1,480,676 visits.
Sectors which fared particularly well include museums & galleries, gardens and boat trip/ marine.
Visits to the Top 20 sites rose by 9%, with these sites accounting for 54% of all visits to Scottish attractions. Edinburgh continues to dominate the marketplace, with 10 of the top 20 attractions located in the city.
Welcoming the figures, Fergus Ewing, Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism said:
“Scotland is a first class destination for Visitor Attractions, with over 27 million people visiting attractions throughout Scotland and building on the successes of Homecoming 2014, the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup.
“I’m especially pleased to see for the first time, Scotland now has 6 attractions visited by over 1 million visitors which is a fantastic achievement.
“2015 is the Year of Food and Drink and I am confident we will continue to build on the momentum created in 2014 and on the long term benefits these events bring, building a strong, high quality experience that visitors will remember and keep them returning to Scotland for many years to come.”
Glasgow sites also fared well, recording an overall increase in visitor numbers of 492,249 (14%). Anecdotal evidence from visitor attractions in the city suggests that the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games contributed significantly to the rise. During July and August, which coincided with the Games, visitor numbers to Glasgow sites increased by 283,392 (34%). It is likely that this increase in visitors to the city impacted positively on other attractions across Scotland and contributed to the overall national increase.
Commenting on the rise in visits to Glasgow attractions, Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said:
“Glasgow is a world-class city, with a world-class cultural offering. The city has a wealth of stunning architecture and ‘must see’ attractions to suit all tastes. I am delighted that five hugely popular Glasgow attractions featured in the ASVA 2014 Annual Visitor Trend Report Top 20 including, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Science Centre, the Gallery of Modern Art, People’s Palace and Winter Gardens and Riverside Museum.
“Last Summer Glasgow delivered the best ever Commonwealth Games and the city came alive during the Games as hundreds of thousands of UK and overseas visitors travelled to the city which helped contribute to the increase in visitor numbers over July and August.”
Major new attractions in Falkirk, including The Kelpies Tour, which generated over 43,000 visitors in 2014, and Helix Park, which up until September 2014 attracted 680,000 visitors, appear to have benefited tourism to the town and provided a spin-off for existing attractions such as the Falkirk Wheel, which saw visitor numbers increase by 26%.
David O’Neill, Chair of ASVA said: “It is clear that 2014 was a bumper year for the visitor attractions sector in Scotland as we reaped the benefits from Homecoming 2014 and major events including The Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup. The challenge is to build on this momentum as we move forward into 2015 and beyond”.
Media enquiries to Eva McDiarmid, Chief Executive, ASVA, Tel. 0141 229 0923, Mobile 07715 991718, E: eva@asva.co.uk
About ASVA
ASVA has over 480 member visitor attractions.
Visitor attractions in ASVA membership generate almost 5,000 Full Time Equivalent jobs for the Scottish economy.
For more on ASVA members: www.asva.co.uk
About the Visitor Trend Report 2014
The report was co-ordinated and collated by LJ Research of Edinburgh.
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