Supporting seamless journeys

VisitScotland Moment for Change programme

VisitScotland has supported businesses through the pandemic and into recovery with a range of advice delivered through the Moment for Change programme. This included a digital audit on Glasgow businesses, individual digital reviews and help for businesses to deliver a quality customer experience.

A series of webinars focused on delivering digital fundamentals and solutions to support recovery, including online booking, working with online travel agents, reputation management, search engine optimisation and more.

A total of 28 Glasgow businesses requested digital reviews. These involve review of existing channels and focus on the fundamental actions businesses can take to become more discoverable and bookable online.

A digital audit of Glasgow businesses identified the key city products that were not discoverable or bookable, and formed a target list of businesses to support. As a result of the audit, the number of city businesses bookable online increased:

  • the proportion of visitor attractions and activities bookable online increased from 12% in 2020 to 45% in 2021 (increase of 43 businesses year on year)
  • food and drink businesses bookable online rose from 37% to 75% (up by 41 businesses)
  • accommodation providers bookable online rose from 80% to 82% (up by 6 businesses)

The programme encouraged investment to meet the needs and expectations of customers now seeking more reassurance about the quality and cleanliness of their visit. Activity included:

  • Introduction of the ‘Quality Time with VisitScotland’ initiative.
  • Promotion of the ‘We’re Good to Go’ scheme.
  • Glasgow businesses in Quality Assurance schemes were contacted with bespoke advice and feedback on the pre-arrival visitor journey, reopening guidance, quality standards and reassuring visitors by being safe, clean and welcoming.

Germany market online workshop

VisitScotland invited five hand-picked Glasgow businesses for a German market online workshop in November 2021. The session looked at why the German visitor market continues to be important to Glasgow, as it’s one of the city’s key international markets for recovery, and how businesses can prepare to work with the German travel trade.

Inclusive tourism

Investment from VisitScotland is supporting Glasgow in becoming an inclusive and accessible destination. A digital itinerary was developed, 19 ideas for an accessible day out in Glasgow, in partnership with AccessAble.

Businesses featured include Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow Science Centre, Tramway, St Enoch Shopping Centre, Glasgow’s Music Mile Tour, Saramago Café Bar in the Centre for Contemporary Arts, and Ibis Styles Glasgow Central Hotel. Glasgow Convention Bureau is now using the information to update its member venues’ web listings.

Sustainability

Destination COP: a sustainable legacy for Glasgow’s tourism industry

Prior to COP26, VisitScotland and Glasgow Life held an in-person event for Glasgow City Region businesses. Over 80 tourism and events industry colleagues attended the event, designed to share advice to make achievable, practical steps on sustainability. Useful resources from the event are available to access on VisitScotland.org.

COP26 podcast series: sustainability and the business events industry

VisitScotland’s Business Events team created a 16-episode podcast series for the COP26 period to discuss how the issues of change and sustainability affect the business events sector. A new episode of ‘COP26 and the Journey to Change’ dropped every day of the summit, and featuring a line-up of expert speakers from, among others, the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Convention Bureau, Scottish Event Campus, Dear Green Coffee and Revive Eco. The series remains available for you to listen to on the VisitScotland Business Events website.

Plate up for Glasgow

Plate Up for Glasgow was a hospitality-led, zero-waste food & drink campaign, coinciding with COP26 in November 2021. Piloted by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce through its Circular Glasgow initiative, and funded by Experience Glasgow Food and Drink Regional Group, the campaign aimed to highlight and encourage hospitality industry action on the issue of food waste and its impact on climate change.

Campaign highlights:

  • 41 venues and 6 suppliers participated – surpassing the initial target of 26 venues
  • Plate up for Glasgow website was viewed over 100,000 times
  • 118 items of coverage (print and digital) with a total of 55.5 million opportunities-to-see
  • Over the five-week period, data returned by 19 of the 41 venues found that 4,192 low-waste ‘Food Hero’ dishes and drinks had been ordered by guests
  • 56% felt the campaign offered the opportunity for better engagement on the subject; 40% would value training on sustainability and food waste; and 60% of venues considered food waste to be more important than they did prior to the campaign
  • 95% of venues would be keen to participate in a similar initiative

Read the Evaluation Report on the Plate up for Glasgow website. VisitScotland worked with Eusebi Deli to hold an MSP engagement day at the restaurant on 18 October 2021, highlighting the Plate up for Glasgow project and the wider Destination Net Zero programme, and also published a case study on Plate Up as part of the ‘Tourism as a force for good’ campaign.

Hospitality Zero pilot project

As part of the wider Destination Net Zero programme, a key strand of the COVID-19 Tourism Recovery Programme, Hospitality Zero is a pilot project to support Glasgow City Region businesses in identifying priority actions for tackling food waste. Participating businesses monitor their food waste for one month and benefit from advice and support via consultancy and equipment. The project is delivered by the partnership of VisitScotland, Scottish Enterprise and Zero Waste Scotland. Find out more about Hospitality Zero and how your business can take part in the pilot project on VisitScotland's website.

Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone at COP26

City tourism partners and stakeholders took part in a range of sustainability-themed business events at Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone, the Scottish Government’s hub established at The Lighthouse for the period of COP26 in Glasgow, 1-12 November.

VisitScotland led the planning and delivery of the venue on the Scottish Government’s behalf. Among 60 events hosted by multiple partner organisations were ‘Shaping a Responsible Future with Scotland’s Tourism Industry’, ‘Scotland: Destination Net Zero’ and a session for the business events sector on the industry’s role in creating positive societal change to tackle the climate crisis and drive equality.

One of the best-attended events was ‘The Power of the Bike: 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships’, which profiled the ambitions of the Championships to be based in Glasgow next year, including the role the cycling can play in the fight against climate change and other key policy areas.

Marketing & PR: responsible tourism in Glasgow

Blogs on VisitScotland.com profiled Glasgow and responsible tourism in the run-up to the city’s hosting of COP26, including ‘9 fun and sustainable things to do in Glasgow’, ‘9 interesting facts you never knew about Glasgow’ and ‘4 ways tourism businesses are becoming sustainable’.

Glasgow Walking Tours, Mono, exhibitions at the Riverside Museum and Glasgow Green were among the ‘green experiences in Glasgow’ highlighted by the VisitScotland consumer PR team in their global media update in July 2021, resulting in print and online coverage from titles including Witrip, Travelling Scope, LUXE, Global Times and TravelandLeisure. Features were secured in We Demain (print reach of 20,000), Frau Aktuell and Echo der Frau (combined reach of 900,000), Metro (print reach of one million), and Elle France and Les Echos.