Tag Archives: Scotland

In line with the rapid growth in interest for Scotland among Indian travellers, the destination has recorded an average growth of 37 per cent over three years in trips taken by Indian travellers to Scotland, informed Kirsten Spence, Senior Market Manager—Emerging Markets, VisitScotland during the tourism board’s Delhi roadshow in partnership with Etihad Airways. In 2017 alone, the destination witnessed 8 per cent YOY growth with approximately over 40,000 Indian tourists. “These figures are conservative as they are calculated based on arrivals via airports and we know the actual number is much higher as the travellers also come to Scotland through rail or drive themselves,” says Spence. She adds that VisitScotland will conduct its B2B roadshow in Bengaluru on December 11 and in Mumbai on December 13 following the one in Delhi to meet the travel trade from these cities.

Visit Scotland gathered its top tour operators and travel trade associations for a roundtable discussion in Mumbai on the sidelines of its three-city roadshow to help push numbers and get feedback from them. Explaining the reason behind this initiative, Vineet Lal, Senior Market Manager (Long Haul & Emerging Markets), Visit Scotland, said, “We along with Etihad Airways met a lot of our top trade partners and travel trade associations in Mumbai to look at how we can increase the volume and value of the Indian market to Scotland. A lot of the conclusions were around the ability to communicate what Scotland has to offer, communicating Scotland’s top experiences and also working on a program of education both in Scotland and in India so that people on both sides understand how to do business with each other.” The Visit Scotland delegation, that includes seven Scottish suppliers, is in India on its India Business Development Mission to encourage the development of Scotland products among the travel trade in India. It was in Mumbai on February 22 and will travel to Chandigarh on February 23-24, followed by New Delhi on February 25-26. Mumbai saw around 100 attendees at Scotland workshop and around 50 at the networking dinner.