Glasgow's open for business

Despite the hard financial times, tourism is booming, with visitors from home and abroad flocking to the city.

Glasgow is continuing to develop an international reputation as a place to visit and each year the number of people travelling here to work or play is increasing.

And as visitor numbers increase, so does the amount they spend in the city's hotels, restaurants, shops and bars.

So, despite the washout summer, tourist bosses remain upbeat that Glasgow is performing well against some of its fiercest competitors to attract visitors.

Scott Taylor, chief executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said: "From the city's hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and key infrastructure developments being progressed, such as the Scottish Hydro Arena and a raft of new hotels, to the volume of other major events and conference business in the pipeline, there is a lot of confidence in Glasgow just now.

"Compare this to many of our competitor cities, which are going backwards – losing market share and seeing significant falls in hotel occupancy.

"It is easy to see why Glasgow is proving increasingly attractive, not just to tourists and conference delegates, but to developers and investors."

Hotel bookings in Glasgow are at their highest in recent years, and the city is outperforming Manchester, Belfast, Liverpool, Cardiff, Hamburg, Prague and Copenhagen.

The latest available data, from the Lynn Jones Forecaster report, revealed that in May 81% of the city's room were occupied – a 13% increase on the same time last year.

Demand for hotel rooms in Glasgow is greater than anywhere else in Scotland.

Data from STR Global's Monthly UK Hotel Trends report shows Edinburgh recorded a 4% drop in hotel occupancy for May.

And the Glasgow's hotel occupancy boom is set to continue when the city hosts three major conferences at the SECC later this year.

The European Congress Of Immunology, Renewable UK 2012, and the International Conference On Drug Therapy In HIV will bring more than 10,000 delegates from across the world to Glasgow, as well as boosting the local economy by about £18million.

Duncan Johnston, general manager of the Carlton George Hotel and co-chairman of Greater Glasgow Hotels Association, said: "It is testament to Glasgow's strength and appeal, both as a short-break city and as a host for major events, that while many other cities are recording a drop in visitor numbers, hotel bookings in Glasgow remain strong."

To cope with the increase in visitors, thousands of extra seats have been introduced by Virgin Trains on services between London Euston and Glasgow Central.

Three extra trains – with more than 400 seats each – will run every weekday between the cities on key dates throughout the summer.

From this week 16 trains will travel every day between Glasgow and London during July, August and September.

Allan McLean, Virgin Trains' communications manager for Scotland, said: "Our Glasgow-bound trains are extremely busy at the moment.

"Regardless of the recent poor weather, passengers clearly see Glasgow as an attractive destination.

"So we have added more Glasgow services to our summer timetable to cope with a huge demand from passengers travelling up from London, the Midlands and north-west England.

"An increased frequency of journeys will make Glasgow even more accessible for leisure and business travellers up and down the West Coast Main Line, at a time when the city will host major conferences and events, including the Olympic Football Tournament, the Merchant City Festival, Piping Live and the World Pipe Band Championships."

As the number of direct air routes into Glasgow continues to grow, thousands of tourists are opting to fly into the city.

The introduction of Emirates' second daily service between Dubai – one of the world's largest hub airports – and Glasgow last month has already significantly increased the city's "global connectivity".

Airport bosses estimated the service would deliver local economic benefit of £33m with almost 140,000 inbound passengers in 2012 alone.

Francois Bourienne, commercial director at Glasgow Airport, said: "While many people are jetting off on their annual holiday, we continue to welcome a large number of inbound tourists, particularly from America, Canada and the Middle East.

"Our long haul and hub carriers, such as Emirates, Air Transat, United, British Airways and KLM, bring a steady stream of business and leisure passengers to the city on a daily basis."

City restaurants have also reported a boom in business, despite recent damp weather.

Ryan James, chairman of the Glasgow Restaurant Association, said: "As much as we all love the sunshine, its impact on the restaurant trade is demonstrably bad because, generally, people do not want to be indoors and would rather be out having a barbecue.

"With the recent rainy weather, feedback from our members has been that business is booming, so every cloud has a silver lining."

GLASGOW'S tourism bosses say the city has continued to attract visitors because of its conventions and events, as well as cultural events and shopping.

Richard Muir, Glasgow Chamber Of Commerce's deputy chief executive, said: "We wholeheartedly echo the sentiment that Glasgow is open for business this summer.

"The strength of our city centre is key to this.

"Glasgow has developed a tremendous breadth of choice in retail and also has real vitality in its leisure offering.

"With so much going on in Glasgow, there can be no doubt the city and its assets are all open for business this summer."

rebecca.gray@ heraldandtimes.co.uk