THE ROYAL NATIONAL MÒD REPORTS A £3.2 MILLION BOOST TO GLASGOW’S ECONOMY
Read the report here;
The Glamis consultancy report
Last year saw another sensational year for Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail (The Royal National Mòd), with figures boasting a massive £3.2 million generated for Glasgow’s local economy.
A recent economic impact report shows that the nine-day festival, which was held in Glasgow between 11th – 19th October 2019, welcomed over 12,000 people to the city. An outstanding 81% of visitors that came to Glasgow were here to celebrate Scottish culture at the Mòd.
The average visitor to Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail spent £177 each day while staying in the city, with close to 2/3rd of these stating they would come back to Glasgow again. The figures show a notable year on year growth in the festival’s popularity, with overseas visitors staying in Scotland on average 4.3 nights compared to last year’s 3.2
The report, which was generated by STR & The Glamis Consultancy on behalf of Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail, further highlights the importance of the festival, not only as part of Scotland’s cultural calendar, but for the city of Glasgow’s tourism numbers.
Organised by An Comunn Gàidhealach, the Mòd is the biggest, and the most important festival of the Gaelic language in Scotland. Each year, it sees thousands of competitors from across the world take part in or watch over 200 competitions in highland dancing, sport, literature and drama, as well as Gaelic music and song.
Glasgow proved to be the perfect host city for the Mòd, showcasing not only it’s incredibly array of performance venues but also the vast range of Gaelic talent that the city has from school level through to professional performers.
President of An Comunn Gàidhealach, Allan Campbell, said: “We are extremely proud of what The Royal National Mòd has achieved this year compared to last. We have seen a higher number of festival attendees, spending habits, and amount generated for the host city – what a fantastic achievement! This is the first time that the festival has been hosted in Glasgow since 1990 and we are ecstatic about the healthy number of individuals that came to the city to celebrate with us. We are looking forward to our 2020 festivities which are taking place in Inverness where we invite you to join us for another year of celebrating Scottish & Gaelic art, music, and literature.”
Bòrd na Gàidhlig is the main funder of An Comunn Gàidhealach and Mòd Nàiseanta Rioghail na h-Alba, and their Ceannard (CEO) Shona MacLennan, said: “We fully recognise the value of the work that An Comunn does in encouraging more people to use Gaelic throughout the year as well as during the Mòd itself. The range and number of participants as well as the those attending the event bear testament to the increasing popularity of Gaelic language and culture, and its contribution to the Scottish economy. We look forward to this year’s event in Inverness where no doubt the Mòd will again provide many opportunities for participants and quality experiences for audiences.”
Councillor David McDonald, Chair of Glasgow Life and Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “It was a memorable week celebrating the Gaelic language and its culture when the Mod returned to Glasgow for the first time in 30 years. The economic impact is one of the many direct benefits the Mod brings but more importantly it highlights the diverse range of talent from the very young to professional artists performing in Gaelic. We may well be welcoming that talent back to festivals like Celtic Connections in the future and look forward to the role Gaelic can play when Glasgow’s Culture Plan is unveiled in the coming months.”
Andrew Macnair, Head of Marketing, CalMac Ferries Ltd said: CalMac Ferries was delighted to support Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail again in 2019 in Glasgow. We recognise that it is integral to the Gaelic language and culture and are proud to be part of it.
We look forward to 2020 and will work hard with to all involved to deliver another successful Mòd in Inverness.
D-I Brown, Convenor of Mòd Ghlaschu 2019 said: “The Local Organising Committee (LOC) set out to try and deliver the “best Mod ever” and are delighted that this report vindicates that ambition. Not only did a record number of people attend the 9 day festival, but the LOC made a concerted effort to deliver the first “digital and social Mod” with more content from competitions, the fringe and the general day-to-day events captured and distributed through a well-planned social media strategy. Focussed on engaging young audiences, our social content reached over 12000 people through Facebook, nearly 4000 people on Instagram and #modghlaschu2019 appeared in over 470,000 peoples’ timeline on Twitter.
The LOC organised Fringe events were all well attended, from the Opening George Square party where 600 people partied (in the rain) to Princes Square over-flowing with people on the Sunday evening to listen to Celtic Praise with Soisgeul Choir and later in the week professional singers and performers entertained people at the Glasgow Gold Concert in the Concert Hall. Just a few of the events that took place during the week to delighted audiences. Without doubt, Glasgow has proven to be a perfect choice to stage the Mod and we are confident that that it won’t be another 29 years before the Mod returns to Baile Mòr nan Gaidheal – the City of the Gaels.”
The Royal National Mòd returns this year from October 9th-17th and will be hosted in Inverness.