Travel Massive Edinburgh Welcomes The World

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.

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