Edinburgh is a city with a long, proud history of firsts – something that extends to how its business tourism community has come together to counteract the effects of ongoing political uncertainty, whilst at the same time ensuring the city both strengthens and grows its reputation as the perfect destination for conferences, meetings and business events
Business tourism is an important sector for Edinburgh, accounting for approximately 20% of tourism revenue in the city. The capital’s collective efforts thus far have already seen it awarded 27th in the International Congress and Convention Association’s (ICCA) world rankings in 2018 for hosting international meetings, 2nd only to London in the UK.
Events bring delegates to the city all year round, which benefits venues, hotels, transport providers, bars, restaurants, shops and attractions. But the rewards are also reaped by ancillary services and businesses, such as accountancy firms, laundry and maintenance companies, and more thanks to the sector’s halo effect. Regardless of direct or indirect connection to the hospitality industry, Scottish businesses stand to gain from events taking place in the capital, and likewise all are affected any downturn resulting from the current political uncertainty.
In response to this, the city’s business tourism industry has come together to deliver an integrated marketing campaign that unites its diverse offering under a single, cohesive digital strategy – called Make It Edinburgh – to keep the city front of mind with conference organisers.
Through digital channels, the Make It Edinburgh campaign targets UK and European meeting and event planners, promoting Edinburgh as a leading destination for business events and showcasing the sectoral strengths of the city such as finance, life sciences and technology, as these are key drivers of business tourism.
Amanda Ferguson, Head of Business Tourism at Marketing Edinburgh explains, “The message we aim to promote is that Edinburgh is synonymous with innovation, discovery and thinking, a rich history of heritage, full of inspiring locations, buildings and people. Hence conference organisers should ‘Make it Edinburgh’. The campaign gives us a powerful collective voice that will help us develop our business tourism offering and promote Edinburgh’s world leading Centres of Excellence.”
The Make It Edinburgh campaign in its first 12 months achieved an 87.6% increase in traffic to Convention Edinburgh’s website, and generated 147 business enquiries.
Campaign partners include the Edinburgh Hotel Association, Edinburgh Airport, Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Tourism Action Group and Convention Edinburgh (the business tourism arm of Marketing Edinburgh). Together, the group also secured support from VisitScotland’s Growth Fund.
With the campaign’s proven success and the continued political challenges there is collective agreement that the Make It Edinburgh campaign should be extended. Several of the campaign’s founding partners have already reinvested, and an appeal to the wider business community to ‘crowdfund’ the campaign for a further six months has started to gain traction.
Natasha Breen from Edinburgh First commented on making their pledge, “We all recognise the challenges presented by the uncertainty of Brexit this autumn and the Make It Edinburgh campaign is a great opportunity for everyone to take positive action. Together, as a city, we want to maintain our strong business tourism market through these strong and committed relationships.”
To find out more and to make your pledge to the Make It Edinburgh campaign visit:
www.makeitedinburgh/pledge
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