Reviewing Glasgow’s Tourism Strategy

Just over a year ago, Glasgow unveiled its new “Glasgow 2030 Tourism Strategy” outlining how the city intends to grow the number of domestic and international tourists, while continuing to benefit the cities residents and businesses.

The report promises a lot of change, but critics say such a report should not have been required if the council managed the city properly, and that this report has little in the way of detail.

Having had time to sit and read the report, I find myself saying the same thing – “A lot of this is just common sense stuff that should have been done years ago”.

Below is my thoughts on a number of areas within the report, as well as some of the steps I believe need to be taken to fix the cities tourism industry.

Glasgow’s Target Leisure Markets – Overview (Page 8)

The city has identified five main markets that it believes is key to growth in tourist numbers.

I want to focus specifically on the third point outlined in the report – International Leisure Visitors.

The primary markets identified are the USA, Canada, Germany and France, all of which also feature in Visit Scotland’s ten busiest inbound tourism markets for Scotland, thus making them sensible targets.

Using research already published on gerogentravels.com looking at market share across Scotland’s Airport’s (there is more than one), it is clear to see that the US market in particular has collapsed since the pandemic.

To put the numbers into context, Glasgow Airport went from having 43.7% of the US market in 2017, to just 5.3% in 2023, with that number shrinking further in 2024, with yet another contraction forecast for 2025.

There are several complex reasons that explain some, but not all, of the changes;

• Inbound/Outbound demand: Glasgow Airport has traditionally always excelled at outbound traffic, while suffering on inbound traffic.
• Exchange Rates: Since the pandemic, the £/$ exchange rate has made the UK cheaper for Americans while making the US a much more expensive destination for British travellers.
• Airport Management: Glasgow Airport management needs to reconsider how it is dealing with airlines, as well as making it easier to get from Glasgow Airport to Edinburgh if that is where Visit Scotland is promoting internationally.
• Government Influence: The Chief Executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce has accused the Scottish Government’s Aviation Policy of unfairly supporting Edinburgh over Glasgow.

Looking outside of the USA, direct traffic between Glasgow and Canada/Germany has fallen, however, traffic between Glasgow and France has increased.

As I will discuss later on, more action is needed by multiple stakeholders across the city to make accessing both of Glasgow’s Airports easier.

Evolution of Glasgow’s Tourism Supply (Page 10)

Page 10 of the strategy outlines how Glasgow can tap into its already established reputations to increase its tourism numbers.

Point number three on this list “World-class facilities for major events” is undeniably true. Over the last decade Glasgow has hosted several international events including the Commonwealth Games, UCI World Championship and COP26.

Glasgow’s main events campuses are located to the west of the city, and are easily accessible by rail and foot from the city centre, this would be fine for domestic events, but as an International Conference Hub there is currently no direct bus or rail link to the cities major airport.

Passengers arriving in Glasgow Airport are required to either travel into Paisley by McGill’s 757 bus service and change to McGill’s 26 bus route, or travel on the First Bus 500 service to the city centre before heading back out west to the events campus.

Improving the connectivity between the airport and the SEC and Hydro isn’t going to boost passenger numbers, that would be an unreasonable conclusion to reach, however, making the journey as seamless as possible would improve first impressions of the city to visitors – a prime example of this is the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow to the ExCeL in London.

Furthermore, thanks to the route this bus would be required to take, it connects communities such as Govan to the cities airport directly, making it more attractive to local users who currently have to travel into Glasgow first. If they have to travel into Glasgow, they may as well take the direct bus to Edinburgh Airport, rather than Glasgow Airport.

Reconnecting with the world

This seems like a rather obvious step to any user of Glasgow Airport, for a lack of better words, the direct route options from Glasgow are poor compared to other regional UK airports.

I can spend hours writing about how AGS Airports have to take all of the blame for airlines leaving Glasgow, but, they cannot be left to take all of the blame.

On page 13 of the strategy it talks about making Glasgow a “connected city”, unless this extends to the airport, its an irrelevant point.

Public transport at Glasgow Airport is not only poor in terms of coverage, but poor in terms of value for money and frequency.

Of the ten busiest airports in the UK, the First Bus 500 service has the highest cost per mile, and it’s not even particularly close to 9th place.

Airport	One Way Price (On The Day Price)	Approx Price Per Mile
London Heathrow	£12.80 (Elizabeth Line)	65 pence per mile
London Gatwick	£18.60 (Thameslink)	66 pence per mile
Manchester	£6.50 (anytime train)	63 pence per mile
London Stansted	£23 (Stansted Express)	63 pence per mile
London Luton	£23.30 (East Midlands Railway)	74 pence per mile
Edinburgh	£4.50 (Brightbus)	56 pence per mile
Birmingham	£4.50 (West Midlands Railway)	56 pence per mile
Bristol	£9 (Bristol Airport Flyer)	91 pence per mile
Glasgow	£10.50 (Glasgow Airport Express)	105 pence per mile
Belfast International	£8.50 (Translink Service 300)	45.9 pence per mile

To make early morning and late evening services more attractive, people have to be able to reach the airport, and reach it at a reasonable cost. If a traveller can pay £14.99 to fly from Glasgow to Poland, why should they pay £10.50 for a 10 mile journey to the airport?

Looking further afield, areas such as Inverclyde, Ayrshire and Dunbartonshire have little or no public transport to Glasgow Airport, indeed for many travellers from these areas, its just as easy to access Manchester Airport by public transport than it is Glasgow Airport.

Simply put, if locals cant access their own airport, what chance does a tourist stand?

It’s a well known fact that Edinburgh is one of the UK’s most popular cities for International tourists, and yet, travellers arriving in Glasgow Airport can’t even access direct transport to the capital.

By offering a direct bus service, and utilising the multiple quiet periods at Glasgow Airport it should, on paper, open a new line of marketing Glasgow Airport to international airlines. It shouldn’t even be limited to Edinburgh, attract Scottish based travellers from places such as Stirling through direct transport makes the airport more attractive.

Connections by public transport are only half of the story, integrated ticketing is another.

Pre-Covid a traveller could purchase a ticket from ScotRail (I will use Largs for this example) and alight at Paisley Gilmour Street, then use their rail ticket on the bus to Glasgow Airport.

Now, Glasgow Airport is not even listed as a destination on the ScotRail website journey planner, and the dedicated page for accessing Scotland’s Airports cannot get its story straight.

The only way to buy a ticket is at a staffed station, and a one way ticket will cost over £17.

A ticket from Largs can however be purchased to Prestwick Airport, Edinburgh Airport, and even Inverness Airport.

Making sure public transport costs are lowered at Glasgow Airport should make it a more attractive option. Remember, even though a ticket to Edinburgh or Prestwick Airport is more expensive, they cover a longer distance, its the price per mile that angers most people.

It’s also vital to remember, passengers are not the only people who use public transport to an airport, the employees do as well!

A rather simple solution is a fast, and frequent, bus service to Paisley Gilmour Street Station. Currently buses run an average of every 30 minutes (down from every 15 minutes pre-pandemic).

Something similar to the ScotRail Station link in the city centre would be ideal, with airport passengers able to purchase through tickets to their final destination with buses running between the first and last trains.

Furthermore, enhanced advertising of the First Bus 77 service North of the River Clyde, with Partick being the rail-bus interchange would also be beneficial, especially as these trains can take people to Edinburgh Park for a tram connection to Edinburgh Airport, if people don’t know they can do the same for Glasgow then they wont consider it.

Glasgow 2030 Tourism Logic Model

I only want to talk about one point in this model, specifically the second point in the inputs column.

Glasgow Airport does actually serve the “bucket and spade” market very well, with ample choice of airlines flying to destinations such as Antalya, Dalaman, Alicante and Malaga.

Where the airport suffers, is on its range of European City Destinations.

I am going to say something many will not agree with, lets leave the USA out of the equation for the next couple of years, instead, Glasgow Airport should focus on connecting Glasgow to more of the major tourism and business cities across Europe.

Cities such as Copenhagen, Madrid, Milan, Warsaw, Lisbon, Venice, Vienna, Dusseldorf and Munich all see no direct flights from Glasgow for the majority of the year (Jet2 have a limited Christmas programme to Vienna).

Furthermore, cities such as Paris, Rome and Berlin all suffer from a lack of varied airlines operating these routes. Paris only sees point to point traffic with easyJet whereas Air France could open up endless connecting routes via their Paris hub.

Airport Management – Overpromising and Underdelivering?

Andy Cliffe became the CEO of AGS Airports at the beginning of 2023 and stated Glasgow Airport has “huge opportunities” thanks to Scotland having a “connectivity deficit”

Examining his publicly stated intentions it remains clear, none have actually materialised in 24 months.

“North American connections we will target coming back”

Flights to the USA will reduce further in 2025, however, Air Transat have reversed plans to reduce Toronto flights.

“He flagged potential for new services to Germany, the north of Italy, and Spanish Cities such as Madrid”

Germany – Munich returned in December 2023 operating weekly. Lufthansa dropped the flights after one season due to poor loads, however, a weekly service was never going to be a success as it removes the routes appeal as a city break destination.

North of Italy – No flights to the North of Italy have been added since Andy Cliffe became AGS CEO.

Spanish Cities – No flights to Spanish cities have been added since Andy Cliffe became AGS CEO.

Speaking in 2024, again to “The Herald” Mr Cliffe again made a number of claims and objectives about the year ahead.

Ambitions to add at least another one million annual passengers this year”

This looks unlikely, with the real number being around 850,000 extra passengers.

Wizz Air returned their operation to Glasgow in Autumn of last year. We expect them to build from this position”

Wizz Air launched Glasgow with 2 routes and 4 weekly flights. Currently, one year later they operate 1 route with a maximum of 3 weekly flights.

Obviously other factors such as aircraft and crew availability are influential in this, and we don’t know what talks are taking place behind the scenes, but when you say something publicly, its only natural for the public to judge you on it.

Final Thoughts

Glasgow Airport needs to up its game, and I think that thought is slowly being realised by the airport, at least when AGS CEO Andy Cliffe is being interviewed it seems to come across.

Blaming the airport bosses for the loss of every airline and route though isn’t a good strategy. Instead, a more holistic view is needed in the fact that every stakeholder in the tourism industry could do much much more.

Visit Scotland can do more. Glasgow Airport can do more. Public Transport providers can do more. Glasgow City Council can do more.

This isn’t just a case of Glasgow vs Edinburgh. It is clear that Edinburgh Airport management have used their connections to their advantage, encouraging more routes and support from the Government. Some will question if it is all legitimate, or if they are being favoured over Glasgow, like the CEO of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. If that claim is true, then the silence up to this point is deafening, and really says it all.

Reinventing the wheel isn’t what is needed, instead, taking shots at the open goal is what’s needed.

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