Expedia Group to boost travel in Scotland

Expedia Group, one of the world’s largest online travel companies, and Scotland’s national tourism board, VisitScotland, have joined forces to help drive travel demand by supporting the country’s hoteliers.

To build awareness of its value-adding technology tools, help maximise hotels’ offering and boost travel demand, particularly during the low season, Expedia Group and VisitScotland have come to an agreement.

Expedia Group’s expertise on managing travel data 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 practices.

“To build on that success and drive even greater demand”

Irene Roberts, director of market management, UK and Ireland, Expedia Group, commented: “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.”

According to data gathered by the Expedia Group, which includes UK hotel demand from January to June 2018, the demand for Scottish hotels have increased with a number of cities and regions across the country experiencing a strong year-on-year growth. Glasgow and Aberdeen experienced a significant increase, each growing around 10% year on year.

Over the last few years, VisitScotland has been working with major players in the travel industry to help both its tourism industry and the visitor experience with great results. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland. The organisation employs around 700 people and its key objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by GBP 1 billion (USD 1.3 billion) by 2020.

“Tourism is more than a holiday experience”

Riddell Graham, director of industry and destination development at VisitScotland, added: “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.”