City Marketing Campaign Yields Best Ever Year for Glasgow Hotels
The £4.4 million Glasgow: Scotland with style campaign run by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau has resulted in an exceptional year for Glasgow’s hotels, according to new figures.
The Greater Glasgow Hotels Association City of Glasgow Forecaster reports that average occupancy of Glasgow hotels in 2006 at 74% was the best since records began seven years ago. Up 2.5% on 2005.
Occupancy in December also reached a 7-year high of 60% - an increase of 3% over the previous December.
The Glasgow: Scotland with style campaign is seen as the single most significant factor in the results, with a heavyweight programme of national and international activity gathering pace across the year.
This began in spring with consumer advertising, followed by a PR campaign including the promotion of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, taking the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective to London Fashion Week and enticing travel journalists to experience city attractions.
In December, an online promotion run in conjunction with Easyjet generated 20,000 click-throughs in a 5-day period, yielding £200 back in ticket sales for every £1 of the £36,000 budget spent.
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau is also responsible for major events, festivals and conventions, which also did well. For example, attendance at the Glasgow River Festival shot up from 40,000 in 2005 to 70,000 in 2006.
Across the year, 455,120 delegate days were generated for the city, equating to £100 million in local economic benefit.
Scott Tayor, chief executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau said:
“Now in its third year, Glasgow’s brand campaign is providing clear competitive advantage and the city is reaping the rewards.
“Glasgow’s offer to tourists was particularly strong last year and we were able to weave this into the brand campaign to great effect.
“Clearly the re-opening of Kelvingrove was the biggest news and we worked with Glasgow City Council and VisitScotland to maximise this opportunity.
“Major events, festivals and conventions were also important. And by winter we had orchestrated a major promotional campaign in support of retailing.
“The net effect was great results for hotels, shops, restaurants and attractions alike.”
- Ends -
Issued by:
Nancy McLardie, Head of PR
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
Tel: 0141 566 0830, mobile 07710 349394
email: nancy.mclardie@seeglasgow.com.
Note to Editors
1. Glasgow: Scotland with style was launched in March 2004 and has a budget of £4.4 million. The project has secured £2 million from Glasgow City Council and £1.8 million from the European Regional Development Fund through the 2000 - 2006 Western Scotland Objective 2 Programme.
Since the campaign launch, 228,519 additional tourists have visited the city, equating to £26.5 million in local economic benefit.
2. Funded by Glasgow City Council with contributions from the private sector, the not-for-profit Glasgow City Marketing Bureau has 40 staff engaged in national and international activity comprising:
- Development and implementation of the city branding campaign: Glasgow: Scotland with style
- Conventions, incentives, events, meetings and exhibition sales
- Conference and event accommodation bookings
- Event creation, attraction, management and marketing
- Public Relations
- Development of the website for the Metropolitan area: www.seeglasgow.com
3. Greater Glasgow Hotels Association City of Glasgow Forecaster is produced by Lynn Jones Research Ltd. using data collected from 23 Glasgow hotels, representing 4,069 rooms
Supporting quotes
Dominic McVey, co-chairman of Greater Glasgow Hotels Association:
“There was a noticeable difference in the number of conference delelgates and ad hoc leisure guests visiting the city in 2006. “It has become very evident that the Glasgow: Scotland with style campaign is both far reaching and well recognised.”
Hamish Millar, general manager for Buchanan Galleries:
“Buchanan Galleries saw more visitors over this Christmas period than the previous year, with figures for both November and December up on 2005. It’s clear that the energetic marketing efforts of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau are paying off.”
Alan Tomkins, spokesperson for Glasgow Restaurateurs Association:
“Restaurants definitely felt the benefit of conventions and major events including the Gourmet Glasgow festival in August, which is actively supported by Glasgow: Scotland with style.”
Councillor John Lynch, Executive Member for Cultural and Leisure Services at Glasgow City Council:
“The promotion of Kelvingrove was a great team effort with the Council, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and VisitScotland all working together to capture the attention of the world’s media over a period of six months. As a result, coverage of Kelvingrove was seen by millions of people world-wide and we are still reaping the benefits.”
PR95/BESTEVERYEAR/19JAN07