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The Riverside Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow featured as part of a city round-up in The Sunday Mirror
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The consumer PR team supported a press trip with Soundbite PR on food and drink featuring Glasgow in June. Publications include The Spectator and GQ
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
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New Glasgow City Region content on visitscotland.com
Check out new content added to visitscotland.com featuring Glasgow City Region:
- Greater Glasgow & The Clyde Valley webpage
- Charles Rennie Mackintosh & Glasgow architecture
- Glasgow destination page featuring the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Trail and video and Banksy Exhibition
- Fantastic arts and culture events in 2023 featuring Aye Write
- 10 best coffee shops to try in Glasgow featuring the Glasgow Coffee Trail and Festival
- Canals in Scotland featuring Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
- Places to eat in Glasgow
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.
The power of PR
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Following a UNESCO press trip earlier in the year, Glasgow featured in French publication - L’Alsace
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The Mary Quant exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum featured in L’Economiste. The Banksy: Cut and Run exhibition featured in French titles - Le Telegramme, Courrier International, Konbini and Le Figaro
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Glasgow featured in an article on film locations for the latest Indiana Jones film in Geo and Euronews
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Australian publication, Luxury Travel Magazine included a six-page feature on Glasgow in May. The article featured the SEC Armadillo, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow Science Centre and Pollok Country Park to name a few
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Voco Grand Central featured in the Sydney Morning Herald following a journalist visit in August last year
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The UCI World Cycling Championships featured as one of the top reasons to visit the UK this summer on AFAR.com, a key North American publication. The article positions the UCI Cycling World Championships as a key event in the calendar. And suggests the event will be inspiration for cycling holidays in Scotland. This inclusion was as a result of direct pitching during media events at Scotland Week in April 2023
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The North America PR team pitched the Banksy: Cut and Run exhibition to key contacts and titles. The story featured on Insider.com and AFAR.com. Take a look
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The North America team hosted a journalist from Thrillist in Glasgow. The city has already featured in a round-up of places to travel in July on their website
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We hosted a freelance journalist from Reader’s Digest (US) and other titles as part of a trip to Scotland
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Thousands of people across the US and Canada unite every year in New York to celebrate Tartan Day on 6 April. For the last 20 years, we've participated in a week-long programme of events to promote Scotland, alongside key partners. We ran a series of events over the course of the week including a media lunch with Virgin Hotels Glasgow
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.
Customer browsing in a VisitScotland iCentre.
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.
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 surveyCycling | 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.
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
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
VisitScotland Connect 2023
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