Tourism professionals are continuously improving accommodation facilities in Scotland as it has become one of the main assets for the country’s economy.
Infographic Credit: Lucie Jung
VisitScotland, Scotland’s National Tourism Organisation, has forecast that tourism will become more and more important for the economic growth of the country over the next few years. Scotland’s Tourism boosts the hotel market.
Indeed, figures released by VisitScotland for 2014 show that tourism is constantly increasing in Scotland with a total of 15.52 million overnight tourism trips and £4.8 billion spent compared to 14.79 million total overnight trips and spending of £4.6 billion in 2013.
The Scottish Government declared: “Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP.”.
As a result, the aim of sector professionals is to take full advantage of the tourism growth by improving the accommodation facilities of Scotland in order to attract even more tourists from all over the world.
Firstly, Jurys Inn is going to change and update the image of the Inverness Hotel and the Aberdeen Skyway Hotel. Whereas AccorHotels will rebrand the Caledonian Hotel in Aberdeen.
Also, many new hotels are about to be built throughout the country within the next few years in strategic areas such as Edinburgh or Glasgow, which are the two biggest cities in Scotland, among which two atypical big projects are going to be lead.
The Royal Yacht Britannia intends to convert the iconic MV Windsor Castle into a floating luxury hotel while Jestico + Whiles and TIAA Henderson Real Estate are working on an uncommon design for the new hotel in St James in Edinburgh: a ribbon hotel.
- Travelodge Hotel: Glasgow – Opening in autumn 2015
- Ibis Styles: Glasgow – Opening in autumn 2015
- MV Windsor Castle: Edinburgh – Opening in spring 2016
- The Marriott: Edinburgh – Opening in early 2016
- Motel One: Glasgow – Opening in spring 2017
- Radisson Red Hotel: Glasgow – Opening in 2017
- Rosewood Edinburgh: Edinburgh - Opening in 2018
- Edinburgh St James Hotel: Edinburgh – Construction begins in 2016; concludes in 2020
