Big occasions for businesses to mark in their diaries for 2024…
January 21: In the pink
Disney’s 100th birthday celebrations may be winding down on January 21, when the touring centenary exhibition ends its run at London’s Excel conference centre.
But tourism operators in Aberdeenshire will be making the magic last just that wee bit longer, with the reopening of Craigievar Castle in spring.
The famous pink palace is said to have inspired Walt Disney to create Cinderella’s castle.
It has been closed since autumn 2022, while the National Trust for Scotland carries out conservation work. The castle has been pink since owner Sir John Forbes commissioned a report from architect John Smith in 1824, which recommended the hue to match the local granite.
February 8-11: Let there be light
Spectra, Scotland’s festival of lights, marks its 10th anniversary in Aberdeen next year.
It will light up sites including Aberdeen Art Gallery, Marischal College and Union Terrace Gardens.
The festival began life as a pilot project back in 2014. It attracted 119,000 visits in 2023 – up from 116,000 last year, when it generated £250,000 of additional spending for the city’s economy.
The light show, which is commissioned by Aberdeen City Council and run by local firm Live Event Management, won the outstanding cultural event prize at this year’s Aberdeen City & Shire Thistle Awards, but lost out at the tourism awards’ national final.
March 12-13: Talking tourism
P&J Live in Aberdeen is going to become the centre of the tourism universe next spring, with not one but two major conferences rolling into town.
The Scottish Tourism Alliance is teaming up with the Association of Scottish Visitor
Attractions and Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers to bring the Scottish Tourism Month Signature Conference to Aberdeen on March 12 and 13.
Flagship travel trade event
Then it’s the turn of the national tourism marketing agency, which will host VisitScotland Connect – billed as this country’s “flagship travel trade event” – at the same venue on April 17 and 18.
A total of 6,000 meetings took place at this year’s Connect gathering, with 175 tourism businesses linking up with more than 250 tour operators from 23 countries.
March 31: Planting seeds
Opportunity North East is the private sector economic development partnership launched by energy industry veteran Sir Ian Wood in 2015 to diversify the region’s economy beyond oil and gas.
It aims to hold a topping out ceremony for its new SeedPod food and drink innovation centre in Aberdeen before the end of March.
Construction work got under way this year on the £27 million project at Scotland’s Rural College’s Craibstone campus, with the centre expected to open in early
2025.
As well as product development kitchens and demonstrations spaces, the site will also house advisors to help companies increase productivity and grow exports.
May 1-6: Speyside celebrates
The Spirit of Speyside whisky festival will be toasting its 25th anniversary next year.
There will be a preview of events on Burns’ Night and tickets go on sale on January 31.
The programme is expected to include more than 500 events in the region’s 51 distilleries, alongside bars, restaurants, hotels, and any other licensed nook or
cranny.
This year’s festival attracted more than 2,500 visitors from 35 countries.
The event’s “Distilled” offshoot, where whiskies will be joined by gins, vodkas and beers, will return to Elgin Town Hall on September 6 and 7.
July 21: Oban ahoy
Businesses in and around Oban will be hoisting the mainsail and trimming their rigging in July when the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race docks in the west coast port for the first time in the event’s 27-year history.
Boats are expected to begin arriving in Oban between July 12 and 16, ahead of the race starting on July 21
Oban marks the penultimate leg of the event before it heads for the finish line in Portsmouth.
The race is among diary dates which feature in VisitScotland’s “11 Reasons Why You Should Visit Scotland in 2024“.
September18-19: Something fishy
Meanwhile, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scotland’s Rural College will team up in September to welcome 200 delegates to Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness for their A3 Scotland event.
The triumvirate of “As” in question are aquaculture, agricultural technology and animal health.
Industrialists, investors, scientists and government officials from around the world will gather to discuss the “transition to digital” and look at investment opportunities.
October 9-10: Windy city
Trade bodies Scottish Renewables and RenewableUK will be bringing their Floating Offshore Wind conference back to Aberdeen in October.
As the name suggests, floating wind turbines are simply anchored to the seabed, rather than being erected on massive towers beneath the waves. They’re going to be big business because they can operate in deeper waters.
Before Christmas, the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) in Orkney published a white paper outlining the case for opening a national floating wind test centre to help put the technology through its paces.
Emec has already identified a site about 12-and-a-half miles west of Orkney it believes will be perfect for testing devices.
October 17-20: One day more
Do you hear the people sing? Well, you will come October, when Les Miserables rolls into P&J Live in Aberdeen.
The musical has spent 39 years in London’s West End.
It embarks on a world tour in September, with a cast and orchestra featuring 65 performers touring 15 countries.
Five performances over four days mean lots of visitors will flock to the Aberdeen show.
And that will have knock-on benefits for the city’s bars, restaurants and accommodation providers.
Glasgow is the only other Scottish location hosting the tour, with sites in Belfast, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield mopping up musical fans further south.
December 17: UK Parliament dissolved
The latest date Prime Minister Rishi Sunak can call a general-election is December 17, which marks five years since the current parliament first met.
If he hasn’t called an election by that point, parliament will be dissolved automatically.
An election would be held 25 working days later on January 28 2025.
Financial incentives in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement got tongues wagging the election may take place in the spring.
Sky was even offering odds of 2/1 for it to take place during the run-up to Christmas..
It’s now even money the election will be held next autumn, at some point between October and December.
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