ABERDEEN City and Aberdeenshire has turned its focus on leisure visitors in Norway, with a delegation recently attending the Reiseklar exhibition in Bergen (January 16 to 18) to explore some of the opportunities.
The Aberdeen Airport Business Development Forum has targeted Norway as a prime area for attracting leisure tourism to Aberdeen City and Shire, complementing the region’s strong business travel links.
Wideroe Airlines already operates a route from Aberdeen to Bergen and in January Eastern Airways launched direct flights to Oslo which will operate in addition to its Stavanger route.
Claire Burt, marketing manager for BAA Aberdeen said: “Aberdeen has greater connectivity to Norway than any other destination. Although the business sector is strong, there is clearly ample opportunity to attract more leisure visitors and we have set up a working group to explore and maximise these opportunities.”
Reiseklar attracted more than 150 exhibitors, with around 20,000 visitors to the show. Promoting the region on the Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire stand were representatives from Visit Scotland, BAA Aberdeen, the new Malmaison Hotel and G-Casino, which recently opened its doors in the new City Wharf development. The group
carried out market research during the event, to capture information on the current perception of the region within Norway and to build a profile of potential Norwegian tourists.
Rita Stephen, Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future (ACSEF) development manager, said: “We are on the brink of a very exciting period for the travel industry within Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. Not only do we have a whole host of new hotels, golf courses and other attractions coming on stream in the next few years, we will also be able to offer a vastly improved retail experience.
“Added to that, the weak sterling exchange rate will make the region much more appealing to overseas visitors and the tourism industry must capitalise on that opportunity to attract tourists from abroad.”
The Aberdeen Airport Business Development Forum includes representatives from BAA Aberdeen, Visit Scotland, ACSEF, Eastern Airways, the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, and Aberdeen Hotels Association. The group is currently gathering information on people with an interest in doing business with Norway. For further details contact Claire.burt@baa.com
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