THE man charged with putting Edinburgh on the global and domestic map for business and leisure travellers has called for a five-fold increase in public funding to promote Scotland’s capital city.
Edinburgh enjoyed a record year for conference business in 2014, attracting events worth £91.5 million, and is on track to beat that tally this year.
It is also shaping up to be another bumper year for tourism in the city, which according to the Scottish Tourism Alliance said attracts 3.75 million visitors a year, 1.5m from overseas.
But John Donnelly, chief executive of Marketing Edinburgh, believes the city could do even more for the Scottish economy if it was handed a bigger budget.
Noting that 60 per cent to 65 per cent of visitors to Scotland come make Edinburgh their first port of call, Mr Donnelly said: “Edinburgh is without doubt the attack brand for Scotland when it comes to visitors.
“Our view is that more should be done to promote Edinburgh. If Edinburgh is being successful in bringing in visitors, the rest of the country will be, because they come here first.
“And we don’t believe enough is done to promote Edinburgh – I think Edinburgh gets taken for granted.”
Mr Donnelly, who worked on the branding for Glasgow 2014 before joining Marketing Edinburgh in July 2013, highlighted the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as an example of the importance of the city to Scotland.
He noted that figures from this year’s event were expected to be 30 per cent higher than last year, when audited statistics showed the Festival Fringe generated sales of £261m. That made it the third most watched paid for ticketed event in the world behind the World Cup and Olympics.
However, he insisted the city’s appeal extended far beyond the Festival Fringe, and highlighted the city’s many tourism attractions and winter festival, which runs from November to January, among the factors which drive tourism to the city.
Mr Donnelly said: “A lot of the revenue that’s generated in those numbers are taxes that don’t go back to Edinburgh – they go to Holyrood and Westminster. I genuinely believe Edinburgh needs more money to promote itself – because everyone benefits by doing so.”
Declaring that public information shows that counterpart organisation the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau receives more funding from its council than Marketing Edinburgh, Mr Donnelly added: “We’re very much of the opinion that more needs to be done to promote the city of Edinburgh, and we need it to be funded more to do so.
“The economic impact of the Festivals is more than the Ryder Cup, it’s more than several 6 Nations. It’s considerable, but I think it is taken for granted.”
Asked how much he would like to see Marketing Edinburgh’s budget to grow by, he replied: “To compare with our nearest rivals? Five times. The gap is that much.
“Edinburgh has a lot of natural assets, [but] a lot of people get really complacent about Edinburgh. The world is really, really competitive now.”
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