GLASGOW’s TOURISM POSITIONING CURRENT PERFORMANCE 1 HEADLINES In recent years, Glasgow has experienced a decline in numbers of domestic and inbound trips to the city. The number of inbound trips to Scotland has fallen by 4% over the last five years and the number to Glasgow has fallen by 17%. By contrast, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool have seen increases in inbound trips of 20 – 30%, England 13%. Glasgow outperforms Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool in terms of number of inbound trips for holiday purposes. In the domestic market, Glasgow has experienced a downward trend since 2011, although taking 3-year averages for improved data reliability, the number of trips for 2011-13 is still up by 5% on 2007-09 levels - the same percentage increase as for Scotland and England. Liverpool has experienced the most significant growth in the domestic overnight market – up by 46% since 2007-09. The above trends are based on national surveys (International Passenger Survey and Great Britain Tourism Survey) which have relatively low sample sizes at the city level and are unable to capture a detailed local picture. Glasgow has performed consistently well in the international meetings market, ranking well above Birmingham and Liverpool and on a par with Manchester.
Transcript
GLASGOW’s TOURISM POSITIONING CURRENT PERFORMANCE 1 HEADLINES
In recent years, Glasgow has experienced a decline in numbers of domestic and inbound trips to the city.
The number of inbound trips to Scotland has fallen by 4% over the last five years and the number to Glasgow has fallen by 17%.
By contrast, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool have seen increases in inbound trips of 20 – 30%, England 13%.
Glasgow outperforms Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool in terms of number of inbound trips for holiday purposes.
In the domestic market, Glasgow has experienced a downward trend since 2011, although taking 3-year averages for improved data reliability, the number of trips for 2011-13 is still up by 5% on 2007-09 levels - the same percentage increase as for Scotland and England. Liverpool has experienced the most significant growth in the domestic overnight market – up by 46% since 2007-09.
The above trends are based on national surveys (International Passenger Survey and Great Britain Tourism Survey) which have relatively low sample sizes at the city level and are unable to capture a detailed local picture.
Glasgow has performed consistently well in the international meetings market, ranking well above Birmingham and Liverpool and on a par with Manchester.
Glasgow city centre hotel occupancy rates have risen in recent years - from 71% in 2004/05 to 80% in 2013/14. Between 2011 and 2013, occupancies have increased at a higher rate (5%) than in Manchester, Birmingham or Liverpool.
The city has a strong cultural offer, with Glasgow museums attracting 3.7 million visits in 2012/13. It is estimated that around a quarter of cultural attendance is accounted for by staying visitors (source: Glasgow Cultural Statistics Digest, 2013).
Around 70% of visitors include visits to museums/galleries as part of their trip to Glasgow. 2 OVERNIGHT TOURISM IN GLASGOW Trends in overnight tourism to the city are monitored primarily through national visitor surveys (GB Tourism Survey, International Passenger Survey and GB Day Visits Survey). These show that the staying visitor market in Glasgow accounts for just 9% of tourism trips to the city but 38% of spend – proportions broadly comparable with other major cities in the UK.
Source: DREAM (DREAM is an economic model that produces volume and value estimates which are closely based, but not identical to results from national surveys)
Inbound staying
2% Domestic
staying 7%
Tourism Day Visits 91%
Glasgow Tourism Trips (2011-13 average)
Inbound staying
12%
Domestic staying
26%
Tourism Day Visits 62%
Glasgow Tourism Spend (2011-13 average)
3 DOMESTIC OVERNIGHT TOURISM The number of domestic overnight trips taken in Scotland and England has grown by approximately 5% between 2007-09 and 2011-13. (Three year averages are used to improve accuracy of the data, particularly important at a local authority/city level.) Over the same time, the number of trips to Glasgow has also grown by 5%, whilst in Manchester trips were up by 11%, Birmingham, 2% and Liverpool, 46%.
Source: GBTS 53% of domestic overnight trips to Glasgow are for holiday purposes – a significantly higher proportion than that for Manchester, Birmingham or Liverpool.
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Source: GBTS Probably reflecting the higher proportion of holiday trips, average length of stay in Glasgow is higher than in the other cities at 2.4 nights. Average spend per night is similar to Birmingham and Liverpool but lower than in Manchester. Table 1: Domestic overnight trips – average length of stay and spend per trip/night
City (3 year average 2011-2013) Ave length of stay Ave spend per trip Ave spend per night
Glasgow 2.42 nights £203 £84
Manchester 1.86 nights £196 £105
Birmingham 2.06 nights £162 £79
Liverpool 2.11 nights £175 £83
Scotland 3.44 nights £230 £67
England 2.95 nights £181 £61
Source: GBTS
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Manchester
Birmingham
Liverpool
Scotland
England
Domestic overnight trips (2011-13)
Holiday
Non-holiday
4 INBOUND TOURISM The number of inbound trips to Glasgow has fallen in recent years, whilst other cities have experienced growth. In the last five years, between 2009 and 2013, the number of inbound trips to Glasgow has fallen by 17%. Over the same period, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool have experienced increases of 24%, 33% and 23% respectively. For Scotland as a whole, the number of inbound trips was down by 4% whilst in England they were up by 13%. The charts below show the city and national trend over the last ten years.
Source: IPS Slightly encouraging is the more recent trend, with inbound trips to Glasgow up by 8% between 2011 and 2013. The following charts show trend by purpose (note: small sample sizes when broken down to this level). In terms of volume, Glasgow attracts higher numbers of holiday trips than Manchester, Birmingham or Liverpool and lower numbers of business trips (source: IPS).
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Taking averages over the last three years (2011-2013), the following charts show the proportions of each trip type (holiday, business, visits to friends/relatives (VFR), other/study) for the four cities, as well as the average for Scotland and England. Compared to Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, a relatively high proportion of inbound visits to Glasgow are for holiday purposes – 53% compared to 33% in Liverpool, 23% in Manchester and just 18% in Birmingham.
Holiday 53%
Business 18%
VFR 24%
other/study 5%
Inbound Visits: Glasgow
Holiday 33%
Business 20%
VFR 25%
other/study 22%
Inbound Visits: Liverpool
Holiday 23%
Business 33%
VFR 26%
other/study 18%
Inbound Visits: Manchester
Holiday 18%
Business 50%
VFR 25%
other/study 7%
Inbound Visits: Birmingham
Holiday 51%
Business 17%
VFR 28%
other/study 4%
Inbound visits: Scotland
Holiday 39%
Business 22%
VFR 30%
other/study 9%
Inbound visits: England
Again taking averages for 2011 – 2013, average length of stay for inbound visitors to Glasgow was 5.3 nights – the same as Liverpool but slightly shorter than Manchester and Birmingham. Average spend per night was the same for Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool (£69) and higher than in Birmingham (£55). Table 2: Inbound trips – Average length of stay and spend per trip/night
City (3 year average 2011-2013) Ave length of stay Ave spend per trip Ave spend per night
Glasgow 5.3 nights £367 £69
Manchester 5.6 nights £390 £69
Birmingham 6.3 nights £346 £55
Liverpool 5.3 nights £365 £69
Scotland 7.8 nights £652 £84
England 7.6 nights £612 £80
Source: IPS
5 INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS MARKET Although IPS data shows Glasgow attracting fewer inbound business trips than Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, the city performs well in the international meetings market. In 2013, Glasgow was ranked 38th in the ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) European City Rankings, well above Birmingham and Liverpool and slipping just below Manchester for the first time. Table 3: ICCA European City Rankings
Number of Meetings Per City
Europe 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
1 Paris 179 159 181 196 181 204
2 Madrid 93 90 131 133 164 186
3 Vienna 147 171 174 188 195 182
4 Barcelona 165 161 181 161 154 179
5 Berlin 130 145 173 152 172 178
6 London 115 115 152 134 150 166
7 Istanbul 96 108 139 130 128 146
8 Lisbon 110 119 113 121 106 125
9 Prague 114 112 115 108 112 121
10 Amsterdam 116 131 116 127 122 120
Top UK & Ireland Cities
11 Dublin 75 52 68 82 97 114
21 Edinburgh 58 49 68 54 67 55
33 Manchester 24 21 22 31 30 34
38 Glasgow 38 34 32 37 35 33
76 Oxford 17 12 18 13 16 19
80 Birmingham 10 9 12 14 14 18
87 Liverpool 26 12 13 10 17 15
95 Cambridge 11 18 18 15 21 13
Sources: ICCA A Modern History of International Association Meetings; ICCA Statistics 2013
6 GLASGOW HOTEL OCCUPANCY TREND
Hotel occupancy data also suggests strong performance in the city. The Glasgow Hotel Occupancy Survey (LJ Forecaster) reports that average hotel occupancies in the city have increased from 71% in 2004/05 to 80% in 2013/14.
Occupancy surveys by STR Global report the following annual occupancy rates, showing strong performance in Glasgow relative to other cities. Table 4: Average annual hotel occupancy by city
City 2011 2012 2013 % change 2011-13
Glasgow 74.6% 75.8% 78.5% +5.2%
Manchester 74.9% 73.6% 76.1% +1.6%
Birmingham 67.6% 67.0% 70.0% +3.6%
Liverpool 70.3% 68.4% 70.0% -0.4%
Source: STR Global Both LJ Forecaster and STR Global surveys of course only report on a small proportion of overall accommodation stock. However occupancy trends are still a useful indicator of tourism demand. The Glasgow Visitor Survey by TNS (2011), found that 51% of visitors to Glasgow stayed in a hotel while in the city.
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Glasgow City Average Annual Hotel Occupancy
7 VISITS TO ATTRACTIONS
Museums, galleries and visitor attractions are an important driver of tourism demand. From the Glasgow Visitor Survey (discussed in the next paragraph) a high proportion of trips to Glasgow are to visit museums/galleries/attractions and from venue surveys, it is estimated that 27% of visits to Glasgow’s museums are by staying visitors: Table 5: Glasgow city museums, visits by residents, day and staying visitors
Origin/type % 2012
Glasgow city 41%
Outer Glasgow 17%
Day visitors 15%
Staying visitors 27%
Source: Glasgow Cultural Statistics Digest, 2013
Between 2008/09 and 2012/13, visitor numbers at Glasgow’s museums and historic buildings have increased by 6% (source: Glasgow Cultural Statistics Digest, 2013). Top attractions with number of visits in 2013 are as follows: Table 6: Visits to Glasgow attractions
Attraction 2013
Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum 1,044,000
Riverside Museum 740,000
Gallery of Modern Art 572,000
Glasgow Botanic Gardens 430,000
People’s Palace 310,000
Centre for Contemporary Arts 296,000
Glasgow Cathedral 233,000
Burrell Collection 193,000
St Mungo Museum 121,000
Provand’s Lordship 78,000
Source: Visit Scotland
8 VISIT MOTIVATIONS Importance of museums and attractions
Results from the on-going Glasgow Visitor Survey by Lynn Jones Research, January 2013 – October 2014, show the following top motivations for visiting Glasgow (total sample 2,994; 66% staying visitors, 34% day visitors) :
Museums (42%) Visiting friends/relatives (33%) Historic city (31%) Art Galleries (27%) A previous visit (24%) Shopping (21%)
Museums and art galleries are evidently very strong motivating factors, with 42% of visitors saying that ‘museums’ were what made them want to visit the city, 27% ‘art galleries’. This is backed up in the results of the question asking about activities undertaken:
Visiting museums (69%) Shopping (61%) Walking around the city (60%) Visiting art galleries (48%) Going to restaurants (37%) City bus tour (32%) Visiting exhibitions (29%) Visiting attractions (26%)
‘Visiting museums’ is the top activity reported with a very high 69% of visitors taking part in museum visits.
Top places visited were:
Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum (54%)
Riverside Museum (39%)
Glasgow Cathedral (19%)
The Tall Ship at Riverside (16%)
Gallery of Modern Art (14%)
People’s Palace & Winter Gardens (13%)
Merchant City (13%) Please note that two out of the four sampling points in the visitor survey were next to museums so it is likely that the importance of visiting museums is over-stated. During the summer of 2011, a visitor survey by TNS-RI surveyed 740 visitors to Glasgow as part of the wider Scotland Visitor Survey for VisitScotland. Results from this survey show the following reasons for choosing Glasgow:
Particular attraction (22%) Friends/relatives recommendation (20%) Interest in history (17%) I know the area well (16%) Family connections (14%) Scenery/landscape (14%)
The most popular activities were:
Museums/Art Galleries (72%) City centre walking (60%) Shopping (48%) Trying local food (48%) Sightseeing (43%) Short walk/stroll Visited a cathedral, church, abbey etc (38%) Night out/visited pubs (35%)
From both the Lynn Jones survey and the TNS survey, it is clear that visits to museums/galleries are an important aspect of a visit to Glasgow.
Wider Scotland links
The TNS survey found that having a connection with Scotland is a significant motivating factor for trips to Glasgow by non-Scottish residents. 55% of visitors who lived outside Scotland had connections with the country, either through family, friends or ancestors who live/lived in Scotland. Most visitors to Glasgow visit the city as part of a wider visit, touring Scotland (37%) or visiting both the city and surrounding area (20%). The Lynn Jones survey found that 32% of respondents said that their visit to Glasgow was one of a number of destinations that they were visiting on this trip. 30% were also visiting Edinburgh. Visitor Satisfaction
The Lynn Jones survey asked respondents what most impressed them about the city. Top mentions were:
Architecture/ buildings (74%)
Plenty to do and see (63%)
Friendly/ helpful people (59%)
Atmosphere/ ambiance (46%)
Historic towns/ buildings (41%)
Green spaces/ gardens (37%)
Everything is in walking distance (36%)
From the TNS survey, aspects most likely to receive a ‘very satisfied’ rating were:
All aspects relating to the VisitScotland Information Centres Useful online information for trip planning Convenient air routes Information locally on places to visit Friendly and efficient service Value for money of attractions
