Glasgow: Volume and Value of Tourism

The city of Glasgow attracts 2.8 million visitors per annum who generate £700 million for the local economy.

Latest figures show some 31,000 people were employed in tourism related activities in Glasgow throughout 2005 and 2006, representing 17% of the total tourism workforce in Scotland.

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau booked an impressive £148 million of new conference business in 2006/07 - more than double the value of the previous year.  In recent months Glasgow has secured £46 million of conference business, winning new international conferences worth £21.1 million, and securing £25.1 million of repeat business from UK association meetings.

The Glasgow Conference Ambassador Programme is supported by more than 2,000 members drawn from the local medical, scientific, academic and business communities.   In 2006/2007 local Conference Ambassadors helped to secure conference bookings worth £41 million, representing 27% of total convention sales for the year.

Thanks to a 40% increase in visitor beds in the last six years, there are currently 8,075 hotel bedrooms available within a 10-mile radius of Glasgow city centre.  The total bedroom stock for the Greater Glasgow & Clyde Valley area including hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, self catering, university halls of residence and proposed new builds is now approaching 19,000.

Despite this, occupancy of Glasgow hotels rose to an average of 75.3% in the year ending March 2007, compared to 73% in 2005/06.

Since the launch of the city branding campaign Glasgow: Scotland with style in March 2004, in excess of 535,000 additional tourists have visited the city, equating to £62 million in local economic benefit and delivering a 2% year on year increase in hotel occupancy.

The area is served by two airports – Glasgow International Airport, which is around 7 miles west of the city, and Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which is 30 miles to the south. From January - December 2007 passenger traffic at Glasgow stood at 8.73 million while 2.4 million passengers travelled through Prestwick during 2007.

Glasgow has been named the top place to shop outside London for the third time in a row and is expected to hold the title for the next 10 years.  Experian Business Strategies, one of the UK’s leading economic forecasting consultancies, reported Glasgow came a clear second in the UK 2007 Retail Ranking because of the continuing success of its key shopping districts.  Glasgow city centre attracts more than 90 million shoppers each year and is now a one-stop leisure and shopping experience.

Glasgow’s main retail thoroughfare, Buchanan Street, has been named by the Academy of Urbanism as the finest shopping street in Britain.  Key criteria for “The Great Street Award 2008” accolade included local character, distinctiveness, user-friendliness, and commercial success.  Buchanan Street scored highly in each of these categories, beating off competition from Regent Street in London and O’Connell Street in Dublin.