Rob Davidson, Managing Director of MICE Knowledge
SCOTLAND HAS THE “BRAGGABILITY” FACTOR, SAYS MICE EXPERT
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) was named the UK’s Best Convention Bureau for a remarkable 10th consecutive year in 2016 and is only city in the UK to date to be included in a new sustainability ranking of leading international conference destinations.
The MICE market is increasingly turning to ‘second-tier destinations’ like Scotland One of the world’s leading meetings and conferences researchers has said that Scotland has a ‘braggability’ factor that rival international destinations struggle to match. Dr Rob Davidson, Managing Director of MICE Knowledge, believes Scotland has a strong and growing reputation on the worldwide meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions circuit. Dr Davidson, who will present his annual Trends Watch report at the IBTM World meetings trade show in Barcelona this month, says: “One big advantage of Scotland is that it’s got novelty value. A lot of people already know London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin, and it’s harder and harder to get them excited about a prospect of a meeting or an incentive in those cities. He added: “Scotland, however, is relatively new on the market and I think in particular we are seeing a huge rise in interest in what we call ‘second-tier destinations’. Those are not the
capital cities or the largest cities but a bit off the beaten track, a bit different, places that have got what I would call ‘braggability’, in the sense that participants can go home and say, ‘I’ve just been to a conference in a small Scottish town on the banks of Loch Ness’. That’s got a lot of power at the moment.” Dr Davidson, a Scot, has written six books on conferences and incentive travel and is Visiting Professor in six European universities, where he educates students on MICE management. He says whilst Scotland has a “powerful brand” overseas, and in particular praised the work of VisitScotland’s dedicated conferences and meetings team, he said more could be done to encourage delegates to extend their trips and to build partner programmes. He adds: “I think not only
Scotland but convention bureaux in general should do a lot more to plant that idea in the delegates’ heads months and months before they actually make their booking, by working with the PCOs and the organisers to say, ‘We know you’ve got 5,000 architects coming but did you know this is going on the weekend before the conference?’ “That helps entice people to come with their partners and thus extend their trip, which we know they are much more likely to do when accompanied,” Dr Davidson said. He added: “That does happen anyway but my own research looks at how we can stimulate that much more in advance. It’s a win-win for everybody: the hotels, restaurants, the tourism industry generally gains from that, but we do need to be more proactive.”
NEW 1,000-SEAT VENUE FOR EDINBURGH Plans for a 1,000-seat concert hall and arts hub in Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square have been unveiled. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) and charitable trust Impact Scotland want to create a new auditorium for the city, complete with
BITE-SIZED SCOTLAND
facilities for education and a studio. The building would complement rather than compete with existing concert venue Usher Hall and would be located behind the RBS headquarters at Dundas House. “The auditorium would meet the long-recognised need for a
purpose-built, mid-sized venue in Edinburgh, combining excellent acoustics with access for all forms of popular music, jazz, folk, chamber and other small classical music groups, as well as solo and song recitals and small dance ensembles,” the SCO said.
The new AECC convention centre, opening in Aberdeen in 2019, will have an arena capacity of 12,500 as well as 48,500cm2 of flexible exhibition space. The venue will be situated near to the airport with three new on-site hotels. These hotels will join the predicted 2,000 extra hotel rooms being added to Aberdeen in the next two years. The Queensferry Crossing is due to open in May 2017. The bridge forms the centrepiece of a major upgrade to the important cross-Forth transport corridor in the east of Scotland. The 1.7 miles (2.7km) structure will be the longest threetower, cable-stayed bridge in the world.
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