Scotland Tourism Plans to Make the Most of Queen’s Baton Relay

HM the Queen

The Queen's Baton Relay was launched at Buckingham Palace on 9th October 2013, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who is Head of the Commonwealth, placed her message to the Commonwealth into the baton.

Over the following 288 days the baton will cover more than 118,000 miles averaging one to four days in each nation or territory. The first region the baton will travel to will be Asia, from Asia the baton will travel onto Oceania, Africa, Americas (south), Caribbean, Americas (north) before returning to Europe. It will finish its journey at the Opening Ceremony of the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on 23 July 2014.

The Queen’s Baton Relay will give international exposure to Scotland’s tourism industry. VisitScotland launched a £2.4 million series, to boost tourism sector. The campaign features not just the games, which are due to begin on July 23 2014, but also boost the profile of the year-long Homecoming celebrations and the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in the same year.

Beside these engagements, tourist industry representatives will meet with travel agents and tour providers to attract even more operators to include Scotland in their tour programmes. As 95% of visitors from India, still use a travel agent when booking a holiday. Indian is one best developing markets for tourists alongside Brazil, Russia and China, and visitors added £18m to the Scottish economy in 2012, an increase of £5m on the year before.

HM the Queen

Humza Yousaf, Minister for External Affairs and International Development, said: “Scotland is a place of rich culture, beauty and heritage and we welcome the world to come and experience some of what we have to offer.” He will also take part in a special SCOTSagent graduation, which seeks to educate travel agents about Scotland through a series of online seminars in India.