Glasgow has Christmas wrapped up

It has been described as the most satisfying Christmas shopping experience in the UK outside London (2007 Yellow Pages survey), with giant malls, high street favourites, designer boutiques and specialist stores – all in a compact, walkable space, and now Glasgow has its very own website - seeglagow.com - a definitive guide to everything you need to know about the city this festive season.

The website, which has been developed by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB), is packed with information on what to see and do this Christmas – including full details of Winterfest - as well as great gift ideas, store opening hours and details of transport initiatives. There are even special offers from city restaurants and some great hotel deals.

The initiative is part of the £250,000 ‘Christmas Wrapped Up’ campaign, which has been developed jointly by GCMB and key city centre retailers - St Enoch Centre, Buchanan Galleries, John Lewis, Frasers, Princes Square and Debenhams – to ensure that Glasgow shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and visitors have a great Christmas.

Other partners in the ‘Christmas Wrapped Up’ campaign are Culture and Sport Glasgow, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, First Scotrail, the Glasgow Restaurateurs Association and Greater Glasgow Hotels Association.

Scott Taylor, CEO of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau said:

“Glasgow city centre is absolutely magical at this time of year, made all the more special by a feast of festive entertainment that would be hard to beat in the UK.

“City retailers, restaurateurs and entertainment venues have collaborated as never before to make seeglasgow.com the one-stop route to a great Christmas!”

Glasgow is consistently voted one of the top retail centres in Britain, and just last year had its super league status confirmed when the Academy of Urbanism selected Buchanan Street as its “UK Great Street” – ahead of London’s Regent Street and O’Connell Street in Dublin.

It boasts an astonishingly comprehensive retail offer, with a presence from every major British retail brand plus significant numbers of niche names and independents.

The city centre is a square mile of shopping nirvana, where visitors will find everything from Armani to Zara and Primark to Prada while the cutting-edge Merchant City and bohemian west end are only a minute’s stroll or a short Subway ride respectively from the heart of Glasgow’s Buchanan Street.

In further exciting retail developments ‘Che Camille: Glasgow’s home for independent design’ opens for business on Saturday, 15th November at the Argyll Arcade, 30 Buchanan Street in what is the first of its kind in the UK and possibly Europe. Part shop, part workshop and part photography studio, the 3,500 sq ft loft space signals a new chapter in Glasgow’s history as both a shopping Mecca and breeding ground for independent fashion talent.

Princes Square meanwhile will be launching exclusive pop-up shop REPOSITION on Thursday, 20th November and super-cool Japanese label Comme des Garçons already have a guerrilla store operating out of the former Moon boutique in Ruthven Lane.

Extended Opening Hours
Glasgow retailers are running some exciting initiatives to entice shoppers to spend longer in the city, with a number of stores opening late in December. Details from seeglasgow.com as they become available.

Getting to and Staying in Glasgow
Glasgow is easily accessible by air, rail, sea and road so a Christmas shopping break couldn’t be easier. GCMB’s impartial and secure online accommodation booking service at seeglasgow.com offers hotels in metropolitan Glasgow at prices that are comparable to those of major online travel and tourism intermediaries. With rooms starting from £51, getting Christmas wrapped up is only a click away.