Edinburgh strives for greater international profile as Scotland aims at national tourism targets

Edinburgh could become a global holiday destination despite a recent slump in tourism, European experts told Scotland's industry leaders at a conference last Tuesday.

The Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) conference, held at Murrayfield Stadium, forms part of an SNP drive to increase tourism in Scotland by 50 per cent.

At the event, tourist chiefs from Sweden and Canada described how they boosted the international profiles of Gothenburg and Vancouver.

Claes Bjerkne, managing director of Goteberg and Co, and Paul Vallee, executive vice president of Tourism Vancouver, highlighted examples of effective tourism practice from around the world.

The government hopes to double the country's revenue from tourism by 2015, and the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism committee have launched an enquiry to establish how best to achieve this target.

Barbara Smith, head of ETAG, said: "Edinburgh is clearly already an internationally renowned tourism destination but we know that we need to stay fresh, as competition grows. Tourism is everyone's business, whether it is through creating jobs, supporting the local economy or its impact on our environment and facilities."

Faith Liddell, director of Festivals Edinburgh, also spoke at the conference. Festivals Edinburgh was created last year to coordinate the activites of 11 of the city’s major festivals, which attract more than 2.5 million visitors to the capital every summer, and are thought to generate £12 million worth of global media coverage.

However, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a flagship festival event, has experienced a slump in sales this year. For the first time in a decade, hundreds of seats are yet to be filled for the August event. Last year's show was sold out by mid-January. A decline in overseas sales, particularly in the United States, has been reported.

According to director, Jonathan Mills, the future of the Edinburgh International Festival could also be uncertain. Earlier this month he predicted an imminent funding crisis for the annual event and warned that it could suffer "the death of a thousand cuts."

The convener of ETAG, Tavish Scott, said that the enquiry would focus on such issues, and would attempt to find measures to overcome any challenges.

One such challenge was the rejection by local councillors of plans made by American tycoon Donald Trump to build a golf complex near Aberdeen, a decision currently under review in Edinburgh. Another was the widespread derision which greeted the Government’s announcement last year of Scotland’s new, £125,000 national slogan, “Welcome to Scotland”.

But a new strategy is seeking to target the diaspora of Scottish expatriates around the world, which has been identified by industry experts as a lucrative latent market.

A number of initiatives have been launched to encourage descendants of Scots emigrés to visit the country and explore their heritage. They include Scotland’s People Centre, a complex housing family archives to be opened in Edinburgh this spring, and Homecoming Scotland, consisting of a number of events in 2009, marking the 250th birthday of national poet Robert Burns.

Scotland’s Tourism Minister, Jim Mather, has spoken of “our empathetic connection to the world, our ability to bring back the Scots diaspora, 29 million people out there, getting them to consider buying more Scottish produce, coming back for further visits, buying a home in Scotland, investing in Scotland.”

It has also been revealed that Edinburgh has lost ground in the latest index of global status. A World Edition of the board game Monopoly is being launched by toy company Hasbro, and the company has invited web users to vote for their favourite cities. Only cities voted in the top twenty will feature in the new game, and will be ranked around the board accordingly.

A campaign to secure a good position for Edinburgh has been launched by Tom Buchanan, convener of Edinburgh City Council's Economic Development Committee.

He said: “It would be great if people could get on the website and vote. It would almost be hard to imagine a global Monopoly board without Scotland's capital city. We want to be at the Mayfair end of the board.”

But Edinburgh may be lucky even to occupy the Old Kent Road position. With just eight days to go before the deadline, the city was in 39th place with only 0.9 per cent of the vote. Istanbul currently heads the table, and Edinburgh has recently fallen behind London, the highest ranked UK city at sixth place.