Over 60 leaders from top businesses including Mharsanta, Native, Red Bus Bistro and Macintosh at The Willow came together for the first Glasgow Champions event of 2020 led by the new Experience Glasgow tourism network.
Supported by Scottish Enterprise and facilitated by Connect THREE, the new interactive session, held at Bowlarama yesterday (Wednesday, February 5th), featured a lively audience Q&A with Fiona Richmond of Scotland Food & Drink and Gordon McIntyre of City of Glasgow College on developing food and drink tourism in the city and how partnership working can boost Glasgow’s visitor economy.
Speed networking then paved the way for commercial opportunities, with businesses challenging each other on how emerging collaborations could help them create new bookable tourism product.
A £50k Collaboration Fund was also announced to help Glasgow’s tourism industry work together in innovative ways to develop and deliver an enhanced visitor experience. Aimed at attracting tourists to stay longer and spend more, the fund is now open for creative applications from independent groups.
SENSEcity, in collaboration with West Coast Motors and Glasgow School of Art, is the first successful recipient of funds to help pilot an augmented reality and immersive storytelling app, which will allow visitors onboard the Glasgow City Sightseeing bus tours to experience Glasgow in a hi-tech way.
Gordon Mcintyre, Vice Chairman of Experience Glasgow, said: “Our industry needs to be brave and capitalise on partnership opportunities to drive forward our destination.
“Through the support of our new Collaboration Fund and our exciting Glasgow Champions events, the industry can collaborate to deliver compelling new products that visitors really want. It’s a fantastic opportunity for our businesses to work together more effectively.
Ian McColm, owner of Bowlarama and Tiki Bar & Kitsch Inn, added: “It’s great to be part of a network that supports and invests in local experiences. This event has been really helpful in understanding the opportunities available at a destination level and how we can work together collaboratively to drive forward Glasgow and our visitor economy.”
The ambition behind Experience Glasgow’s Champions events is to support and enable Glasgow businesses to connect, learn, share and create compelling new products and visitor experiences in the city. Support is available to members of the network, including product development; market intelligence; digital and communications; to help businesses maximise opportunities from working with the travel trade and becoming bookable online.
Experience Glasgow events and the Collaboration Fund are supported by Scottish Enterprise and work towards delivering on the priorities and ambitions of Glasgow’s Tourism and Visitor Plan to 2023.
The next Experience Glasgow Champions event will take place in May and is open to any business looking to attract more leisure visitors, be more productive and keen to reap the benefits of working with like-minded people to give visitors to the city a brilliant experience.
Businesses can register their interest for upcoming events and find out more about the Collaboration Fund here: here
For more information about Glasgow’s Tourism and Visitor Plan, click here and follow @GlasgowTourism on Twitter, @ExperienceGlasgow on Instagram and Experience Glasgow on Linkedin.
ENDS
Issued by Atomic10 for Experience Glasgow. For more information, contact Nicola Moir on [email protected] and 07920 859 766.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Experience Glasgow
By developing strong commercial partnerships and exploring innovative ideas, Experience Glasgow calls for businesses to innovate across all sectors; including accommodation, tours, attractions and restaurants, to develop and deliver quality experiential tourism products in the city. These visitor experiences should be bookable online and attract visitors from overseas as well as the UK.
About Glasgow's Tourism and Visitor Plan to 2023
Glasgow’s Tourism and Visitor Plan is the blueprint for continuing to build the city’s global profile as a vibrant, must-visit tourist destination. Growing overnight tourism visits from two to three million annually and positioning Glasgow as a cultural powerhouse and the gateway to Scotland is at the heart of the plan, which aims to deliver an economic boost of £771m and create 6,600 new jobs in the city by 2023. For more information about Glasgow’s Tourism and Visitor Plan, click here and follow @GlasgowTourism on Twitter and Experience Glasgow on Linkedin.
