Press release -
£200m boost for Scottish economy
A fund set up to attract lucrative association conferences to Scotland has helped to boost the country’s economy by £200 million, it was announced today.
Set up in 2012, the VisitScotland Conference Bid Fund has helped to secure dozens of business events throughout the country – in venues from the Borders up to Shetland and in all seven cities – with some conferences booked in as far ahead as 2022.
The Bid Fund money awarded is based on match-funding subvention either by a destination organisation or local authority. The conferences must also tie in with Scottish Government target sectors, including Aerospace, defence and marine; Business Processing Operations (BCO); chemical sciences; creative industries; education; energy; financial services; food and drink; ICT and electronic technologies; life sciences; textiles and tourism.
Delegate numbers at the supported events have ranged from 80 all the way up to 5,000.
The predicted £200m economic boost has been achieved through less than £2m of investment from the Fund, with a total of 97 conferences already secured.
Demonstrating the broad geographical spread and range of industries to have benefited, conferences secured through the Bid Fund include:
• Adventure Conference – Skye, 2013
• Creative Orkney – 2014
• Scottish Mountain Biking Conference: International Edition – Peebles, 2014
• Environmental Interactions of Marine Renewables – Stornoway, 2014
• European Political Science Conference – Edinburgh, 2014
• Cold Water Island Tourism Conference – Arran, 2015
• ISAM (International Society of Addiction Medicine – Dundee, 2015
• Routes Europe – Aberdeen, 2015
• Celtic Media Festival – Inverness, 2015
• Global Mountains of the Future – Perth, 2015
• Commonwealth Law Conference – Glasgow, 2015
• British Art Medal Society – St Andrews, 2015
“The conferences, which are attracted by the work of the Business Events team and local authorities to bring more business tourism to Scotland, are expected to support the Scottish economy by up to £200 million. The estimated gross spend is 100 times more than the Conference Bid Fund which is around £2 million.
“This predicted rate of return is one of the most successful we have seen and has successfully supported conferences from Shetland to Peebles and Skye to Perth, and I look forward to welcoming more business visitors to Scotland over the coming years.”
Neil Brownlee, Head of Business Events at VisitScotland, said:
“To boost the Scottish economy by £200 million from less than £2 million of investment is a remarkable achievement and demonstrates the huge importance of the VisitScotland Conference Bid Fund in attracting business events to this country. These are fixed, contracted conferences with specific delegate numbers that move around the world - we know what they are and what they bring, and it is great to have such business ‘on-the-books’ so far out.
“The business events industry is a key sector which supports not only conference centres and hotels throughout Scotland, but also hundreds of other operators not normally associated with tourism, such as AV companies, independent caterers and unique venues.
“These events also create important links between industries, and these opportunities are key to driving even more business events to Scotland alongside agencies, trade shows and strategic partnerships. Scottish delegates attending events overseas can also play their part in securing a future conference for Scotland.
“As well as supporting major conferences in the cities, the Bid Fund has also helped to bring events to every corner of the country which will continue to boost regional economies in the years ahead.”
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
- business events
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
- This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
- Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
- Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
- Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Food and Drink 2015- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/tastescotland
