Edinburgh To Create 3,800 Tourism Jobs 28 Sep 2016

Booming tourist numbers to the Scottish capital are forecast to generate over 3,800 new full and part time jobs in Edinburgh over the next few years.

A new report by the Edinburgh 2020 Tourism Strategy group envisages tourist growth to the city to increase by around 30 per cent in the next four years.

Since 2010, Edinburgh tourism has grown from 3.27 million visitors to 3.85 million last year, an increase of over 16 per cent in five years. Tourist spending in Edinburgh has grown by £300 million a year in the same time frame, and the new report forecasts further increase of £500 million in the next few years, bringing annual tourism spend to to £1.5 billion and allowing the sector to create thousands of new tourism jobs.

Commenting on the report, Edinburgh Tourism Action Group’s chair, Robin Worsnop, said: “The positive performance of the tourism sector is great news for the city and the review gives us a clear focus on how to continue to drive growth going forward. The year 2017 is a great opportunity as we celebrate the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology, plus the 250th Anniversary of the New Town and the 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festivals.”

“There are also exciting new markets identified – we’re already focusing on the rapid growth in the Chinese visitor market, and encouraging the tourism sector to develop products and services for other fast growing markets such as accessible tourism and the youth travel market,” added Mr Worsnop.

Chief executive of Edinburgh City Council, Andrew Kerr, said: “This review tells us that the city continues to offer visitors from all over the world a fantastic experience, based on our amazing history and heritage, festivals and events and world class visitor attractions. But it also makes it clear that we can’t take our foot of the pedal and we need to build on our success to ensure that we achieve the ambitious targets set out for 2020.”