Memorandum submitted by Glasgow City Council
TOURISM STRATEGY
Glasgow has just launched its Tourism Strategy
to 2016, a document compiled by Glasgow City Council, Scottish
Enterprise Glasgow, VisitScotland Glasgow and Glasgow City Marketing
Bureau. Within the Strategy, we discuss three strategic targets:
— To deliver a minimum growth of 60%
in tourist revenue with a target of achieving 80%;
— To grow tourism-related employment
to 40,000;
— To increase capacity by 3,000 premier
hotel bedrooms
Achieving these targets will allow Glasgow to
realise a step-change in performance. If we reach our stretch
target of 80% growth in tourist revenue, this means that in 2016
the city will welcome over 4 million tourists and over 9,000 additional
tourism-related jobs will be created.
PROBLEMS AND
SOLUTIONS
These increases will be achieved by focusing
on a number of drivers including place quality, connectivity,
authenticity, product innovation, strategic management and targeted
marketing. Some of these mirror the biggest challenges facing
Glasgow, in particular we need to:
— Increase the number of direct flights
to Glasgow and Prestwick
— Improve road and rail connectivity
to Glasgow
— Increase the amount of five star
accommodation
Glasgow City Council receives funding from the
Scottish Government's Cities Growth Fund to attract more direct
flights to our airports and there is a great deal of work being
done to improve the road and rail network. The Glasgow: Edinburgh
City Collaboration Initiative seeks to progress areas that are
of mutual benefit to accelerate our economic growth and, amongst
other things, is actively seeking to improve the rail link between
the two cities to allow us to compete more effectively. The Initiative
is also directly responsible for around 20 collaborative projects
that would not otherwise have taken place and is working with
the tourism industry to bring about further joint working. Further
information on these projects can be supplied if required. Collaboration
is also carried out at local level and there are several projects
in Glasgow where businesses have collaborated in order to improve
their method of working and their promotion to the wider market.
Glasgow City Council has its own company, Glasgow
City Marketing Bureau (GCMB), that is responsible for carrying
out all business and events tourism and for all activity related
to the city brand Glasgow: Scotland with style. GCMB was
set up to better represent the interests of the city as it was
felt that the Local Area Tourist Board Network, as it was then,
provided a service that was diluted by the need to serve outlying
areas. VisitScotland Glasgow carries out all leisure marketing
and although it still covers the metropolitan area, GCMB focuses
on the city, therefore business and leisure tourism receive a
level of specialism that would not be possible within one organisation.
October 2007
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