Progress for 'new-look' Glasgow

A series of renovations and upgrades in Glasgow that come on stream this year give strong endorsement to the Scottish city's re-branding as 'Glasgow: Scotland with style'.

Top of the list is the re-opening of Kelvingrove art gallery and museum after a three-year EUR41 million refurbishment, supported by funds from the city, various Scottish bodies, central government and the EU. The new-look Kelvingrove, famed for its Impressionists collection, has a vastly increased exhibition space, and showcases its rich collection in innovative new ways.

A new 'Glasgow Style' gallery focuses on leading Art Nouveau exponent, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, while the spectacular, refurbished Grand Hall can cater for events and meetings of up 1,000 people. A special Mackintosh festival, led by Glasgow University and supported by city and EU funds, is being held in the city throughout the year, with the main programme highlights scheduled in September. The festival involves a wide range of exhibitions at venues associated with Mackintosh and his contemporaries, along with workshops, a Mackintosh trail and new publications.

Another important venue, the Glasgow City Halls & Old Fruitmarket complex, re-opened in January this year, after a EUR19 million refurbishment which has transformed the two linked Victorian buildings into a single elegant, up-to-date centre for concerts (it is home to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), education and broadcasting, as well as for meetings and other events.

Both Malmaison - one of the city's first style hotels - and the Hilton are undergoing EUR2.2 million in refurbishments, and work is underway to convert the landmark Royal Scottish Automobile Club into a 109-room five-star hotel by 2007. Glasgow's room count has grown by 40% since 2000, with 2,000 rooms in the city centre, and 12,000 located within a 16-kilometre radius.

Access to Glasgow continues to improve, with Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Paris the key hubs, but capacity is also growing from Europe, Middle East and North America. Last week easyJet, which begins a Glasgow/Berlin service in May, said it was contemplating links from Glasgow to Barcelona, Paris, Madrid and Milan as well. Another improvement will be a EUR233-million rail-link connecting the airport to the city centre - though this still has to win Scottish parliament approval.

In the context of the new and upgraded facilities, coupled with growing demand, Glasgow's tourism sector remains convinced that it was right to create a City Marketing Bureau last year, following the restructuring of Scottish Tourism in April 2005, when all Scotland's 14 tourist boards were integrated into a centralised VisitScotland. Glasgow's bureau, funded by the city council and the private sector, is now effectively marketing the city nationally and internationally - sometimes in co-operation with VisitScotland, sometimes on its own - in a set-up which is unique in Scotland.