International Legacy

Glasgow's tourism sector continues to drive the city's international image and is built around a strategy of attracting a diverse portfolio of international conferences and major sporting and cultural events, which collectively will help to attract a legacy of investment in years to come. We are:

Promoting Glasgow's image and reputation
to a global audience

International Media Relations Programme

A programme of activity to profile Glasgow's art, architecture, retail, major sporting/cultural events and conference credentials to target media in key Commonwealth territories including Canada, Australasia and India.

Glasgow Destination Portal

The Glasgow Destination Portal includes the People Make Glasgow site family, which provides information for visitors, businesses, event organisers and conference planners.

Attracting inward investment, leisure and
business tourism

Inward Investment Programme

The Inward Investment Programme is a programme of partnership activity to establish strategic trade and investment relationships through targeted outward/inward international trade and investment events, business events for international investors and positive messaging.

Joint Marketing with Carriers

Ongoing work with airports and partners to identify new routes which can be targeted for Glasgow Airport and Prestwick Airport, and delivering joint proposals to carriers for new service provision.

Attracting a range of cultural and sporting events
to the city

The 2014 Cultural Plan

Glasgow Life's 10 Year Arts Plan for the city (2009 to 2019) covers the four-year period for which Glasgow is the host city. The artistic and financial resources used to deliver the Arts Plan will be focused on the delivery of a city-wide Games-related Cultural Programme.

Kelvingrove Bandstand

The restoration project will create an open air performance space, fully equipped with modern facilities and infrastructure to host a variety of exciting events as well as improving the appearance of the park area to make it more welcoming and accessible for local residents and visitors.

Strategic Major Events Forum

The Glasgow Strategic Major Events Forum (SMEF) is developing and co-ordinating bid preparation for a range of major, international events to ensure the sustainable use of the game-related infrastructure.

Developing Glasgow's tourism industry

Glasgow Tourism Service Initiative

The Glasgow Tourism Service Initiative, "Glasgow Welcomes" addresses a number of elements relating to service, skills, leadership, staff retention, education, industry links, and training. The key focus is to raise standards of service across all touch points of Glasgow's visitor experience.

Accessible Tourism

The Accessible Tourism Project was developed to ensure Glasgow is as welcoming and accessible as possible to visitors with additional accessibility requirements. This will be delivered through a communication plan, training activity and the introduction of access statements by the tourism industry.

Case studies

International Glasgow: Zsuzsa Varga, 26, is from Budapest, Hungary. Zsuzsa came to Glasgow as a tourist, now lives here and promotes the city through her job at the Convention Bureau.

Zsuzsa said: "When I came to Glasgow, what I noticed straight away was how welcoming the people are - everyone is so friendly and open. The best thing about Glasgow really is its people.

"The shopping in Glasgow is excellent! But there is so much more to enjoy - the fantastic parks, architecture, museums and the range of arts.

"People who come to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games will realise what a great city it is and will want to come back again and again. The Games give Glasgow a chance to show the world all it has to offer and will make Glaswegians proud of their city."

Glasgow City Centre Mural Trail: Glasgow has embraced concept of street art to promote the city centre, reduce the negative visual impact of land and unit vacancies due to the current economic circumstances, and provide features that will attract more visitors.

 The City Centre Mural Trail [8Mb] features a diverse range of arts set within one easy walking area. The huge range of artwork on display has something to suit all tastes - conservative to radical, quirky to bizarre.

The murals have been produced on buildings, vacant shop units, and on hoardings around vacant land. The first art work was produced in 2008 and this portfolio of completed works has expanded since.

Link to Youtube video: Glasgow City Centre Mural Trail.

Spearheaded by the City Centre Regeneration Team as part of its City Centre Strategy, local artists are encouraged to get involved in the project to help generate local art activity. The artworks have more recently become unique pieces of art in their own right and have generated positive public and business feedback while creating a striking area feature that enhances the city centre environment.