Over the last two decades the volume and value of tourism in the capital have grown dramatically. In 2010, visitor spending was a staggering £1 billion per annum, compared to £250 million in 1990. Employment in tourism now accounts for about 12% of the city’s workforce, no less than 32,000 individuals, with the potential to create a further 6500 new jobs by 2020. 

EDINBURGH 2020 sets out three aspirational and ambitious growth targets that will build on this success, deliver significant economic growth and at the same time strengthen the sustainability of the tourism sector:

·        Increase the number of visits and visitors by one third by 2020, from 3.27 million to 4.39 million visitors per annum, generating an additional 4.15 million visitor nights.  This equates to an increase of 3% per annum;

·         Increase the average visitor spending in the city by 10% by 2020, from £310.40 in 2010 to £341.44 per visitor trip in today's prices.  Combined with increasing the number of visits by a third, this will generate an extra £485 million per annum by 2020, taking the total visitor spending from £1.015bn to £1.5bn in 2010 prices;

·         The target is to achieve 50% of additional visits during the months of October to March and reduce the current 40:60 split in visitors to 43:57 between October to March and April to September.

 You can download EDINBURGH 2020 here. 

The Situation Report provides background data used in the development of the strategy.

The Technical Report provides background data and the assumptions used to develop the growth targets contained within the strategy