Edinburgh launches new tourism campaign to bring back the city’s 'missing buzz'

Edinburgh officially rebooted its tourism industry today with the launch of a campaign aimed at bringing people back to the city in the absence of its festival crowds this month.

The Royal Mile has been almost virtually despite tourism businesses being allowed to reopen for nearly a month.

The ForeverEdinburgh project is aimed at reviving the fortunes of hotels, visitor attractions, cafes, bars and restaurants as the city emerges from months of lockdown by creating a “strong voice for the city” to propel its recovery.

The campaign, launched to coincide with the first week of the city’s annual festivals season, will initially be targeted at people within Edinburgh to try to persuade them to , “fall in love it all over again” and return to the city centre, which normally thronged with visitors at this time of year, to restore what council chiefs describe as its badly-missed “buzz.”

It has been designed by The Lane Agency, which recently worked on The Quaich Project, to create a new concert arena in Princes Street Gardens, as well as campaign work for Edinburgh Airport and tour operator Rabbie’s.

It is hoped the ForeverEdinburgh campaign, which is expected to run over the next year, will help save some of the 18,000 tourism and hospitality jobs that are said to be at risk as a result of the slump triggered by the pandemic.

Industry leaders hope to rally the support of residents for efforts to offset the impact the cancellation of live events during the festivals season, a slump in overseas visitors and a preference among holidaymakers in the UK to head to remote and rural designations rather than take city breaks.

The campaign, which aims to “encourage Edinburghers to rediscover parts of their city safely and fall in love with it all over again,” is being launched just over a year after the city was named one of the world’s worst hotspots for overtourism.

The overseas visitor market increased by more than a million in the space of six years, while the total number of overnight hotels stays has soared by a third, to 4.9 million.

A key element of the campaign, which aims to reposition Edinburgh as the best place to visit in the UK outside London, will be about giving visitors the “confidence” to return to the city centre by highlighting measures taken across the industry to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Funded by the city council and the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, the main voice of the industry, which has supported 34,000 jobs in recent years, the campaign will encourage locals to share their favourite things about the city on social media using the #foreveredinburgh hashtag.

Tourism and hospitality businesses across Edinburgh are being urged to use the campaign to create a “unified city-wide movement” to help revive their sectors - which are said to have a combined social media reach of more than three million followers - as well as welcome back visitors when travel restrictions are eased in the weeks and months ahead.

Donald Emslie, chair of the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, said: “It was clear from the very early days of the crisis that Edinburgh’s tourism sector was going to be particularly hard hit, putting many jobs and businesses at risk.

A spectacular light show has been staged across the city in recent days to mark the start of Edinburgh's festivals season. Picture: Ryan Buchanan

“It was also clear that a new approach to promoting the city’s tourism offer would be required, making public health issues the top priority to ensure the safety of residents, visitors and those working in the industry.

“A key challenge is also the rapidly changing situation, so rather than create a traditional tourism marketing campaign, the #foreveredinburgh initiative is designed to ‘inform and inspire’ people and importantly create a platform which tourism businesses of all types and sizes can be part of.

“ForeverEdinburgh will also encourage residents and visitors themselves to share what they love about the city, creating a genuine ‘Team Edinburgh’ effort to support the many jobs and businesses that rely on visitor income and contribute to the wider economy.”

Council leader Adam McVey said: “There is no underestimating how important tourism and hospitality is to Edinburgh, whether in terms of our economy, local businesses and jobs or residents’ wellbeing and enjoyment.

Visitors have been slow to return to Edinburgh in recent weeks. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

“We’re lucky to have such an incredibly vibrant and varied offering at our fingertips - in part driven by the high levels of visitors that our beautiful city attracts – and we need to act urgently to provide support to local businesses and help build the industry back as sustainable and resilient as possible.

“At the same time, we have to carefully balance this support with ensuring that Edinburghers can enjoy these businesses safely and without compromising their own health or that of others.

“Like all of our recovery efforts, we’re taking a Team Edinburgh approach to backing and implementing the campaign and we’re confident that by working together we can encourage Edinburghers to rediscover parts of their city safely and fall in love with it all over again. We’ll not only see the buzz that we’ve missed so much return to our streets, we’ll also see a positive impact on our local high streets across the city to boost local business and help protect jobs.”

Chris Bruce, director of The Lane Agency, said: “We’ve all experienced eerily silent offices and shops and share a desire to see Edinburgh safely returning to the vibrant, buzzing city we know. It has been a privilege working on a campaign that will reintroduce the city to its residents and visitors."

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