Dubai Expo: Global spotlight on Scottish tourism
By?Christina Bruns, Senior Global Partnerships Development Manager, VisitScotland
VisitScotland has been in Dubai these last few weeks as we rebuild Scottish tourism on the global stage following the devastation of the pandemic.
And what a stage it is to be part of.
The UAE city is playing host to the World Expo. This huge international event (around 190 participating nations this year) takes place every five years at different destinations and lasts six months.?
Expo 2020 Dubai, postponed last year because of the pandemic, began on 1 October, and is set to continue until 31 March next year. It aims to attract nine million visitors over the six-month period and amazingly it's on track to meet that target with approximately 50,000 visitors a day.
It feels fantastic to be able to engage directly at an international event promoting innovation and cultural exchange, after the travel restrictions of the past year.
On 30 November we co-hosted, with the Scottish Government and Scottish Development International, a special invitation-only St Andrew’s Day reception for delegates from across the UAE. It was the first time we introduced Scotland's Year of Stories on the international stage, celebrated with music and whisky (story and tasting) – not least our unique Scottish cocktails crafted especially for Dubai Expo on our behalf by Johnnie Walker Princes Street, named The Storyteller’s Highball and The Makar’s Mocktail.
To engage the public outside the Pavilion, the event opened with a lively Scottish bagpipe band engaging Expo crowds and making Scotland heard across the Expo site and beyond.
It seamlessly complemented the UK Pavilion design at which the event was being hosted. Created by artist and designer Es Devlin, the UK Pavilion has been named the “Poem Pavilion” as it uses?advanced machine learning algorithms to transform the input of visitors into collective poems displayed on the outside of the building, in English and Arabic, using LED lights, symbolising an ‘expression of the ideal of a culturally diverse Britain’.
The teams at VisitScotland, Scottish Government and Scottish Development International have been working closely together over the past year to ensure Scotland made its mark at this important event.
The result is Scotland at Expo?– a five-day programme of exciting, informative and educational activity to experience at the?UK Pavilion, spread across key dates from October 2021 to February 2021, with highlights on Space, NetZero, Health & Wellness.
Building back international travel is a core part of tourism recovery and these events provide an opportunity to encourage travel agents, advisors, and operators to put Scotland at the forefront of new product development for future travel.
Last week, we partnered with VisitBritain and Tourism Ireland for a travel trade industry event at Expo where our team met with top level executives from the travel industry in the UAE, and beyond, including travel agents, advisors, operators, and airlines. It marked the end of a week-long events programme at the Expo which focused on "How Will We Travel" and included the launch of ten exciting new itineraries for trips across the UK.
At the heart of all the itineraries lies our commitment to shining a spotlight on Scottish responsible product.
By highlighting the quality and sheer diversity of tourism products, destinations, and experiences we want to inspire people to explore Scotland, to reconnect with places they love and to support local businesses and visitor attractions as they reopen and rebuild.
Take a look at the ten exciting new itineraries for trips across the UK.