Charles Rennie Mackintosh has become a style icon across Europe this year, thanks to a major VisitScotland PR push with the world’s travel press and style media in support of the Mackintosh Festival 2006.

The work of the Art Nouveau pioneer has captured the attention of journalists from some of Scotland’s main international tourism markets including France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and Switzerland. The press trips were arranged and funded by VisitScotland, with additional support on selected trips from Glasgow City Marketing Bureau.

And it has all paid off handsomely. Tourism Minister Patricia Ferguson announced this month that attendances had topped half a million people, with 49% of visitors coming from outside Scotland, and some 30 countries around the world.

As well as the traditional travel press, the national tourism agency targeted glossy magazines, supplements and TV shows dedicated to style, architecture and interior design, resulting in coverage for the Mackintosh Festival in some of the most prestigious titles in Europe.

Some of the highlights of the year-round coverage include:

• France: coverage in the prestigious glossy Elle Deco (circulation 2.4 million) and upmarket supplements Madame Figaro (circ. 475,000) and Figaroscope (circ. 210,000), plus a Glasgow/Mackintosh feature on popular interior design TV show ‘Question Maison’ (2 million viewers).

• Germany: Full-page feature in glossy ‘Homes & Gardens’ (circ. 150,000), TV coverage on Hessischer Rundfunk, a regional channel taking in the main airports for access to Scotland, plus a 2 hour show on RBB radio’s ‘Reisefieber’ dedicated to Glasgow and Mackintosh (audience 250,000).

• Spain: coverage in top-end supplement ‘El Cultural’ (circ. 400,000) and a series of 10 high-profile articles resulting from a single press trip to Glasgow by Spanish press agency EFE.

A total of 26 European press trips were arranged by VisitScotland between January and the Festival’s peak in September. Supporting activity included a Mackintosh theme to the £1 million European Cities campaign which began in September 2005, and a Mackintosh exhibition at Tartan Week in New York in April this year.

“You can flip open just about any book on Art Nouveau and you’ll find a chapter on Glasgow,” said VisitScotland area director Tom McWilliam, “and for our tourism industry, that presents a massive opportunity.

“Getting Mackintosh into upmarket titles across Europe this year has the short-term aim of creating a successful festival. But perhaps more importantly, it’s laying the groundwork for overseas tourism in the years to come. Glasgow is Scotland’s fastest growing city for international visitors, so building on the association of Mackintosh with Glasgow will support that growth,” he said.