A leading hotelier believes the world is finally waking up to the idea of Aberdeen as a tourism destination.
Stewart Spence, owner of the five-star Marcliffe Hotel and Spa at Pitfodels, was shocked to discover the Granite City was totally off the radar for Risa Feldman, an award-winning travel journalist and radio and TV host in the US.
Mr Spence, who has since featured in one of her shows, said she promised to include Aberdeen in a future programme. “She’s been travelling around the world for 30 years and had never heard of Aberdeen,” he said. The Marcliffe used to depend on the oil industry for much of its trade but is now focused on a different customer – a sign of the times amid the north-east’s economic woes.
Mr Spence will concentrate on attracting business from tourists and not the corporate market which “already knows about the Marcliffe”. He was targeting China and Japan in particular, adding: “I don’t need to do any marketing in America as Trump’s doing that for me.”
The new US president hailed Trump International Golf Links, near Balmedie, as the best course in the world when it opened in 2012.
Mr Spence said: “It’s nice to see a little upturn in the energy industry locally but it’s not going to make that much difference to my business. Companies are still being very careful about how they spend their money, and that’s not going to change.”
The Marcliffe started gearing up for the Far East market a couple of years ago, when all its promotional material was translated into Chinese. Mr Spence also aims to take advantage of the “Scottish Samurai” Thomas Blake Glover, the Buchan-born founding father of the industrialisation of Japan.
On the north-east’s own potential for tourism, he said: “We are sitting on an asset that many people don’t know anything about. There’s such a big world out there that we haven’t really bothered with before. Tourism has been off the map because of oil and gas.”
He said the Marcliffe was also seeing a growing number of Icelandic visitors taking advantage of Icelandair’s flights between Keflavik and Aberdeen, while wedding bookings for next year were “fantastic”.
Mr Spence, who employs about 100 people, has played a leading role in a north-east campaign against steep increases to business rates.
After an appeal, in which he argued his revaluation was based on much higher turnover before the local economic downturn took its toll, he has ended up paying the same as last year.
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