Glasgow is now rubbing shoulders with the business tourism sustainability kings of Scandinavia, having shot up the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index to Number 4 in the world.

Glasgow climbed three places and increased its overall score by 16% on last year and the city’s convention bureau was awarded the ‘Best Improved Destination’ Award at the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Congress in Prague after it scored 94% – a 30% increase on last year’s convention bureau performance.

The latest ranking achievement follows on from the launch of its People Make Glasgow Greener campaign in May this year and the recent announcement that the city had become the first convention bureau in the UK to win a Green Tourism Award, the largest certification programme of its kind.

The GDS-Index promotes the sustainable growth of international meeting destinations and responsible business tourism best practices. It evaluates the performance of cities on four key areas:

• City environmental strategy and infrastructure
• City social sustainability performance
• Industry supplier support
• Convention bureau strategy and initiatives.

Aileen Crawford, head of conventions at Glasgow Convention Bureau, commented: “Glasgow is working towards becoming one of Europe’s most sustainable cities by 2020 and in order to maintain our position as one of the world’s premier conference destinations we recognise the importance of enhancing our sustainable business tourism offering.

“Glasgow is at the forefront of developments in the energy, sustainability and low carbon industries and in turn, this has had a hugely positive impact on the volume of conferences we’re attracting in these sectors.

“This is a fantastic achievement for the city which would not have been possible without the collaboration between the city’s tourism and hospitality sectors, academic and business communities, and local government partners. It’s hugely motivating to see our efforts in this area being recognised.”

Guy Bigwood, Director of the GDS-Index said: “Glasgow demonstrated that change can happen quickly if the Destination Management Organisation takes an active lead in bringing stakeholders together to collaborate and fast-track environmental, social and economic action in their cities.”

In the 2016/17 financial year, Glasgow won over 500 new international and UK conferences through to 2023 worth £142m – the city’s best ever annual return.

The GDS-Index is a prize-winning grassroots Scandinavian initiative that evolved into the first-ever sustainability ranking for event destinations worldwide. A collaborative partnership between ICCA, European Cities Marketing, IMEX and MCI Group, it aims to promote the sustainable growth of international meeting destinations, highlighting best practices and responsible business tourism.

The GDS-Index is headed by Gothenburg, with Oslo in second place. Six of the top 12 destinations are Swedish.

Find out more at www.gds-index.com.

Author: Paul Colston

Source: Conference News