Glasgow City Region seeks 1 million more tourists

The leaders of the eight local authorities in the Glasgow city region have agreed a new strategy to attract a million more tourists over the next five years.

The Glasgow City Region Tourism Strategy sets out a range of measures to grow the local economy and tourism offerings across the whole region.

As part of the new strategy, the eight councils will establish a city region culture group to promote and maximise existing cultural assets.

A regional events and festivals forum will be established to map and co-ordinate a programme of events to develop new and existing audiences.

And a new outdoor activities group will also aim to identify themes that will allow cross-boundary activities.

Local area tourism partnership representatives will be encouraged to join together with council tourism leads as part of a new city region tourism leadership group as a sounding board for delivery of the strategy over the five-year programme.

‘The councils involved in the wider city region are making a commitment to work together to boost tourism for the benefit of all of our areas,’ said Inverclyde Council leader, Cllr Stephen McCabe.

‘The Glasgow City Region tourism strategy is a starting point in working together across the region to make sure that what we individually offer is part of a bigger offer to visitors.
‘That’s got benefits for each council area, for the wider region and for Scotland as a tourism and visitor location of choice,’ added Cllr McCabe.

‘In Inverclyde we have an ambitious infrastructure project as part of the city deal to deliver a new berthing and visitor facility at Greenock Ocean Terminal.  The aim of this is ensure that we do our bit to make sure that our welcome to Inverclyde, to the wider city region and to Scotland is as good as it can be.

‘The vision of the tourism strategy is to build a strong, inclusive, competitive and outward-looking tourism sector, which delivers high quality, value for money and memorable visitor experiences by skilled and passionate people,’ added the Inverclyde Council leader.

The leader of Glasgow City Council, Cllr Susan Aitken, said: ‘This is an ambitious target, but the commitment that Glasgow City Region partners have made to work together and with national agencies provides a strong platform for the city, the region and Scotland as tourist destinations.

‘Glasgow might have an established record of attracting visitors, but every part of the region has its own strengths and bringing those offers together will ultimately benefit us all.’