Expedia Group and VisitScotland join forces to help drive travel demand by supporting Scottish hotels

EDINBURGH, Scotland, 2018-Sep-11 — /Travel PR News/ — Expedia Group, the world’s largest online travel company, and Scotland’s national tourist board, VisitScotland, are joining forces to help drive travel demand through supporting the country’s hoteliers.

Through the new agreement, Expedia Group will work in collaboration with VisitScotland and hotel partners to build awareness of its suite of value-adding technology tools, help maximise hotels’ offering and boost demand, particularly during low season. In addition, Expedia Group’s data expertise will help VisitScotland conduct a review of the visitor experience in Scotland, with a focus on improving regional spread across the country as well as working with industry partners and sharing best practice.

Expedia Group H1 2018 data* shows that demand for Scottish hotels increased, with a number of cities and regions across the country seeing strong year-on-year growth. Demand in Scotland overall also increased, compared with the same period last year. Glasgow and Aberdeen experienced a substantial boom each growing around 10% year on year.

Irene Roberts, Director of Market Management, UK & Ireland, Expedia Group, comments: “We’re delighted to join forces with VisitScotland on this important new initiative.

“Our data shows that Scottish hotels have enjoyed a really positive first half of the year, with those across a number of the region’s cities and highland destinations enjoying good growth compared to the same period last year. This new alliance aims to build on that success and drive even greater demand all year round.”

Riddell Graham, Director of Industry and Destination Development at VisitScotland said: “VisitScotland has been working successfully with major players in the travel industry to help both the tourism industry and the visitor experience over the last few years, with great results.

“Tourism today is all about consumer choice and experience, and the global reach of an organisation such as Expedia Group will help us extend that choice for visitors to Scotland. Tourism is more than a holiday experience – it creates jobs, sustains communities and provides an international shop window for Scotland. Working more closely with Expedia Group will help us extend that reach both regionally and throughout the year.”

* Data includes UK hotel demand from H1 2018 (Jan – Jun, 2018) compared with the same period the previous year.

Issued on behalf of Expedia Group® Lodging Partner Services by Fleet Street Communications. For further information, please contact:

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 five overarching strategies: Marketing, Events, Quality and Sustainability, Inclusive Tourism, International Engagement.

• The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
• Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP
• 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 tourism in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com

2018 Year of Young People

• The Year of Young People (YoYP 2018) will inspire Scotland through its young people aged 8 to 26, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contributions to communities and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and globally
• Central to YoYP 2018 will be a celebratory events programme that puts young people at the heart of its development and delivery, creating new and valuable experiences for young Scots and the wider public, with links to the inaugural 2018 European Championships.
• Over 200 young people throughout Scotland are currently being recruited to become YoYP 2018 Ambassadors. Ambassadors will ensure that people and organisations in their communities know about what’s happening and will lead on projects and activities to create events and opportunities to celebrate young people.
• The Year of Young People will have six themes which were developed in co-production with young people themselves:
• Participation – looking at how young people can influence public services and decisions which affect their lives
• Education – creating a stronger role for young people in shaping their learning
• Health and Wellbeing – supporting young people to lead healthier, active lives and have opportunities to learn about and improve their mental health and resilience
• Equality and Discrimination – broadcasting the value of young Scots, challenging negative perceptions of young people, and supporting young people to take leading roles in challenging discrimination in all its forms.
• Enterprise and regeneration – celebrating young people’s role in innovation, entrepreneurship and the Scottish economy as well as making Scotland a greener and more pleasant place to live
• Culture – celebrating young people’s talent and contribution to Scottish culture and arts.
• Further information on what’s happening and how people can get involved can be found on the new website www.yoyp2018.scot or @YOYP2018 on Twitter.

Press Contact:

Louise Purves
Senior Corporate Press Officer – National
Consumer PR (Scotland), Year of Young People, UK Marketing, Dundee, Fife, Angus, Perthshire
louise.purves@visitscotland.com
0131 472 2052
Out of hours – 0131 472 2324

Source: VisitScotland

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