COVER STORY THE MEETINGS SHOW
Te Germans are coming. And here are the people who are making sure they come back to Scotland again and again.
Tat importance has informed
VisitScotland is doing everything it can to say willkommen - with very good reason
BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN I
t has a number of meanings but as an adjective the German word lieb roughly translates as either ‘kind’, ‘nice’, ‘sweet’ or ‘good’. Tey seem appropriate
descriptions for the Munich-based sales agency Lieb Management, which managed to drum up £13m worth of sales inquiries last year for the Scottish inbound business tour- ism sector. Tis level of activity puts Germa-
ny in pole position when it comes to selling Scotland’s corporate meet- ings and incentives offering over- seas, a job VisitScotland has been gamely doing at Te Meetings Show in London for the last three years. When I catch up with Amanda
Ferguson, VisitScotland’s Meetings & Incentives Marketing Manager UK & Europe, she emphasises the growing significance of Europe’s largest economy for Scottish hote- liers and conference venues. “Te German market is very very
important for us; it’s probably our top European market,” Ferguson says. “Germany is one of the larg- est MICE markets in the world, probably second only to North America, and it’s also the economic powerhouse of Europe, so that in itself just generates a lot of business events and Scotland has good strong business connections with German economic sectors, like finance, en- ergy and the technology companies and that can be a driver of business events.”
24 | EVENTSBASE | SUMMER 2016
VisitScotland’s decision to fly 11 German-speaking agency buy- ers (from Germany, Switzerland and Austria) to Scotland for a ‘fam’ (familiarisation) trip during this week’s Te Meetings Show at London’s Olympia, where the agency has taken a stand for the last three years. Although the UK-wide market is still the dominant source of inbound business tourism for Scotland, Ferguson is making great inroads into this part of the Euro- pean market, which is supported by a growing number of air links.
THERE IS STRONG and growing connectivity into Germany - a key issue when agencies look to book an event - and there are direct flights with Lufthansa from Frank- furt into Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and also with Eurowings flying from Munich and Dusseldorf. She adds: “So for the German
market, Scotland is a very interest-
ing proposition. And if you look at the international passenger survey statistics, which is essentially the inbound travellers and tourists who come into Scotland, Germany is the largest European group coming in.” Te Lieb Management account
manager is Natascha Langhein – who has been working as VisitScot- land’s German market account manager for the last eight years – and the number of leads she has generated reflects her understand- ing of the Scottish supply chain. Ferguson, a German speaker
herself, credits her with doing a “tremendous job”. “Natascha essentially holds our
database and is in constant liaison with the market; she’s out this week doing sales calls in Frankfurt, for example. And if we’re organis- ing a ‘fam’ trip, she’s the one who reaches out to all of our clients, invites, qualifies and then confirms them. She produces a lot of market- ing collateral in Germany in terms
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