Tourism opportunities with China
We worked with a first class group of tourism companies from Scotland in China last week. Key specialist tour operators including Platinum Golf, DP &L, Wangping Travel and Strathearn Green; Highland Golf Links (representing three hotels and golf courses) and Kingsbarns golf course, as well as niche players such as Valentine International and Recounter Photography have been introduced to many counterparts. Golphin for Kids were there too, along with EEB Consultancy who aim to bring junior golfers to Scotland for summer camps. Emphasising the broad nature of Scotland’s full reputation for “premium” consumer products, Eden Mill Distillery, from St Andrews were able to demonstrate their excellent gin, too.
The China Golf show in Beijing has been one of the main areas of focus of the trip, but the ability of the Scottish Development International team to identify and work with key partners in China has provided the real benefit for the Scottish companies travelling. In China the numbers are big. One specialist sports TV channel we are working with has 300,000+ paying subscribers; a significant proportion of which travel overseas to experience luxury, bespoke visits. Whilst the opportunities are immense, the response from the industry in Scotland will require some serious joined-up thinking if we are able to respond. Business models like Uber and AirBnB find ways of aggregating a diverse range of providers to provide a tailored service to a larger customer base. Can the same be achieved in Scotland to maintain a consistently warm welcome to the rapidly growing number of visitors from China ?
Bronagh - on Korea, have you seen this? A new direct flight to Glasgow ... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-35421784 Roddy - we keep working with partners on a similar success from China!...
International Executive/Turnaround Expert. I have worked in all the functional areas of business. My expertise is in bringing Global Product Lines successfully to fruition.
8 年Roddy I was just there as well. Lots of fun and lots of opportunity to push the tourism case.
Business Development, Commercial Leadership, Strategic Marketing, Director,
8 年Great to hear about the tourism opportunities Julian and your point about thinking out of the box with (perhaps a bit of disruption} is very true. Are there any conference, meeting, executive education opportunities for Scotland. Another conference venue that we work with in Cambridge, The M?ller Centre runs a successful Executive Education programme with China which we would be keen to emulate if there were opportunities. I'm assuming South Korea comes under your patch? Any opportunities there for golf etc Best Bronagh
Chairman at the Asia Scotland Institute
8 年A really good point. We do need more joined up thinking in Scotland. Better welcome, direct flights, notices in Mandarin at our airports. Australia's High Commissioner and former longest serving Foreign Minister to the UK speaking as our guest in Edinburgh tonight and giving us a tour d'horizon of Asia Pacific and the recent China Australia Free Trade Agreement. Roddy