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The Winning Years

Vikki Carley looks at Scotland’s ‘Winning Years Campaign’ and some new developments planned for its three conference powerhouse cities of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The next three years have been coined ‘The Winning Years’ for Scotland. The country has won major events including the 2014 Ryder Cup and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the ‘Winning Years Campaign’ will provide an opportunity to capitalise on some of the events coming to or impacting on Scotland.

This year will see the launch of the new Disney-Pixar animation, Brave, which will bring to life Scotland’s dynamic landscapes and inspire people to visit.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is not only stimulating increased infrastructure investment, but will also highlight Scotland on the global map. The return to Scotland for the first time since 1973 of the 2014 Ryder Cup, which will be hosted at Gleneagles, also adds string to the country’s event bow.

In 2012, the Year of Creative Scotland is putting the spotlight on Scottish cultural and creative vibrancy as well as its tradition of innovation with themed events and fantastic festivals. Looking forward, the Year of Natural Scotland in 2013 will place a focus on the country’s beauty and built heritage, with Year
of Homecoming 2014 bringing all the themes together in a year of national pride.

Visit Scotland’s Chairman Mike Cantlay is driving the new corporate campaign. “The Winning Years Campaign is an opportunity for tourism businesses to maximise their promotional activity by focusing on the major event wins for the country over the next few years,” he told CN.

“It is designed to encourage enthusiasm, support and investment in tourism in Scotland and ensure tourism businesses benefit from the opportunities ahead over the next three year period.”

Business tourism is worth £809m to the Scottish economy and 2.8m business trips were made to Scotland in 2010 with spend per night by business visitors 1.5 times higher than that of leisure visitors. Big business is anticipated in the country as a result of a £2m conference bid fund launch, which VisitScotland is offering over the next three years, with the aim of making Scotland more competitive within the international conference market.    

Scotland’s Tourism Minister, Fergus Ewing, said of the new bid fund: “The fund will help attract high‑yield, high‑spend international conferences linked to Scotland’s areas of expertise in industry, commerce or science and medicine.    

“It will build on the great success that Scotland already has in this area and boost our economy in the process.”   

Any application to the fund must specify which of the 12 Scottish Government Target Sectors the conference adheres. The Target Sectors include: aerospace, defence and marine; business processing operations; chemical sciences; creative industries; education; energy; financial services; food and drink; ICT and electronic technologies; life sciences; textiles; and tourism.   

Neil Brownlee, Head of VisitScotland’s Business Tourism Unit, said: “We have listened to the wants and needs of the industry and developed a fund that fills a gap and benefits Scotland by allowing us to continue to punch above our weight within the international conference market.” 

Scotland’s conference and meetings powerhouse destinations of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen have all benefited from over £2bn of capital investment in new tourism facilities. The Scottish Hydro Arena in Glasgow, opening in 2014, will be second in size in the UK only to the O2 in London. Other developments underway include a new extension to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, adding a further 2,000sqm of function space. Through the installation of an upscale version of stage lifting technology, it will be possible to create raised catwalks, raked seating platforms and arena configurations in a fraction of the build time required in more conventional halls. Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms will re-open this summer following an 18-month refurbishment to bring to life the splendour of the Grade A listed 18th century building.

Glasgow

As part of Glasgow’s on-going focus on major infrastructure developments in preparation for the city’s hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, almost 1,000 hotel rooms and luxury serviced apartments will be built between now and 2014, shared between eight new hotels. There are 10,762 hotel bedrooms within a 10-mile radius of Glasgow city centre, of which more than 6,250 rooms are within five miles of the city’s largest venue, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC).

Glasgow secured £155.4m in conference sales in the financial year ending March 2011, which equated to 509,240 delegate days. Around 25 per cent of all conference sales secured in 2010/11 were attributed to Glasgow Conference Ambassadors.

The Glasgow Conference Ambassador Programme, which celebrated its 20th
year in 2010, is a free support and advice service provided by GCMB’s Convention Bureau for academics, scientists, medical professionals and business people who are considering hosting a conference.

The Glasgow programme was the first of its kind in the UK and has since been emulated by many other UK cities.

Confirmed major conferences being hosted in Glasgow in 2012 include the British Society of Rheumatology Annual Conference in May, the International Conference on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport in July and RenewableUK in October.

The SECC is forging ahead with the construction of Scotland’s new National Arena, to designs by Foster and Partners, which will be within the SECC campus.

This 12,000-seat arena will be completed in 2013 and will be an integral part of Glasgow’s provision when the city hosts the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Other key developments include: The £74m Riverside Museum designed by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid, which opened on June 21 2011, as well as the National Indoor Sports Arena and Velodrome, which will open later this year.

These new developments will serve to increase the city’s attractiveness to tourists, conference delegates and as a venue for major commercial, entertainment, sporting and cultural events, further reinforcing Glasgow’s competitive edge.

Aberdeen

Aberdeen could be a lot nearer than you think thanks to an ambitious multi-million pound blueprint to develop Aberdeen Airport over the next 30 years has been unveiled for consultation. The airport’s draft Master Plan, sets out how it will develop to meet future demand, and compete more effectively against UK and European rivals.

Highlights include a £100m capital investment plan over the next two decades, major refurbishment of the terminal building, space for further runway expansion as demand requires it, and a 40 per cent rise in passenger numbers by 2040.

Alesia du Plessis, Aberdeen Convention Bureau’s Sales and Marketing Manager, said: “Aberdeen is already easily accessible from all parts of the UK and Europe through transport hubs in London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris and Frankfurt, with direct flights from all five airports, but the growth plans for the airport have the potential to open up even more routes and additional options for business tourism delegates.”

The highly-anticipated £750m, five-star Trump International Golf Links is expected to be a major draw for visitors when the first of two championship links golf courses opens this summer. Plans for the wider resort include a second 18-hole links golf course, an 450-bedroom five-star hotel set amid luxury holiday homes, and a conference centre.

Other developments for the city’s conference and meetings industry include The City Garden Project, a £140m major development scheme for the existing Union Terrace Gardens. The plans include 10 different garden areas, a 5,000-seater outdoor amphitheatre, 500-seat theatre space, exhibition hall, cafes and double the amount of green space for visitors to enjoy. The project recently won the support of the public following a referendum in Aberdeen City and will now move towards the planning process.

Aberdeen’s position as a global energy hub and the Energy Capital of Europe helps it to secure huge business in this sector. Oil and gas events are traditionally held at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) and include the bi-annual Offshore Europe, which attracts 34,000 visitors over the three-day event; All Energy, a key renewables show, as well the forthcoming 9thDEVEX, World Heavy Oil Congress and the 2nd Aberdeen Unconventional Gas Conference.

Autumn 2012 is shaping up well with the Energy Ball (the premier oil and gas social event of the year for over 1,500 people) and the Society of Core Analysts conference taking place in August, followed by The Scottish Home Show, World Heavy Oil Congress, European Optical Society Annual Meeting (EOS) in September; and the Northern Star Business Awards in October.

Aberdeen was chosen over Paris for the EOS event, which will attract 600 delegates and bring in around £814,000 for the economy, while the World Heavy Oil Congress has previously been held in Beijing, China and Margarita Island, Venezuela, with the 2011 congress held in Edmonton, Canada.

The World Heavy Oil Congress is the world’s leading unconventional heavy oil conference and exhibition. With around 1,000 delegates, it is expected to boost the Aberdeen economy by £1.75m.

Also confirmed for October is Digital Engagement, a conference which will attract around 250-300 Professors and large international names such as Apple and Microsoft to this three-day event.
“The majority of conferences we work on are associations, which involve academics leading bids, and around 60 per cent of Aberdeen’s association meetings business is directly attributable to our Ambassador Programme,” added du Plessis.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh, Scotland’s festival city, is living up to its reputation as a centre for history and the arts with the opening of the newly redeveloped Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Scotland.

Both venues are able to host dinners and receptions, while the latter can accommodate up to 850 guests in its vaulted atrium.

Marketing Edinburgh convention bureau’s figures over the last month reflect the strength of the meetings industry for the city with 23 new conferences confirmed, which will take place between now and 2013 with a combined value of £4.8m. The bureau has in the financial year to date confirmed 160 conferences, which will attract 42,500 delegates to the city between 2012 and 2017 with an economic benefit of £61.2m.

“As we draw towards the end of our financial year, we are optimistic about reaching not only our economic benefit target of £87.5m, but also our income generation targets including that set
for our Conference Accommodation Booking Service, which is on track to exceed target by placing in excess of £1.5m of bookings with our accommodation providers in the city,” said a spokesman for the bureau.

“Interest in Edinburgh as a conference destination remains positive.

The association conference market has proved to be resilient during 2010-11 and despite increasingly competitive market conditions, Edinburgh has the potential to win 90 per cent of the international association meetings market.”

Edinburgh’s growing centres of excellence particularly in the fields of science, medicine and technology will help to attract an even greater number of specialist conferences to the city.

Future big wins for the big three:

Glasgow