Ministers 'exaggerated success of Homecoming'

Published on Wednesday 8 September 2010 19:19

ALEX Salmond's claims that the Homecoming celebrations were a huge economic success were based on exaggerated figures that overestimated the number of jobs created by 70 per cent, an independent report concluded yesterday.

A review of the economic spin-offs generated by last year's flagship tourism event disputed the First Minister's oft-repeated claim the Homecoming injected 53.7 million into the Scottish economy, suggesting the figure was out by almost 15M.

According to the study by Geoff Riddington, director of Grid Economics, the 2009 Year of Homecoming resulted in an economic boost of 38.8m.

It also suggested the amount of public money spent on Homecoming was 8.5m rather than the 5.5m previously quoted.

Dr Riddington calculated Homecoming created 893 posts, suggesting the 1,536 new jobs the government cited in the past was an exaggeration of 70 per cent.

He also examined the number of jobs created by The Gathering, the international clan event in Edinburgh that was the centrepiece of Homecoming 2009. He found that, on its own, the Gathering had led to 115 new posts, less than half the 288 jobs that has been claimed previously.

Dr Riddington's findings led to anger from opposition MSPs after he presented it to the Scottish Parliament's energy and tourism committee yesterday.

Labour's tourism spokesman Lewis Macdonald said: "Alex Salmond's claims about the success of Homecoming have turned out to be more bogus than Brigadoon. This report finds that SNP ministers underestimated the cost of the event and overestimated the number of jobs it created.

"The case for a full investigation by Audit Scotland is now proven beyond any reasonable doubt. When large sums of public money are involved we need complete transparency and openness."

Dr Riddington's report challenged figures produced by Ekos, an economics consultancy commissioned by tourism agency VisitScotland to review the cultural celebrations, which coincided with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns.

The Ekos figures have been repeatedly used by SNP ministers in defence of Homecoming and to justify their decision to bail out The Gathering when it became clear that the event was heading for financial disaster.

Dr Riddington said Ekos's analysis was based on outdated models and "substantially overestimated" the economic impact of Homecoming.

Speaking to MSPs, Dr Riddington resorted to stronger language, saying claims over the economic gains of The Gathering were "completely bogus".

Gavin Brown, the Lothians Tory MSP, said: "It seems they have massively overestimated the number of jobs created by around 70 per cent.

"An independent expert has asserted the errors arose from using a very flawed and outdated model.The tourism minister needs to explain why his figures are so different and also how he intends to make absolutely sure that future reports are more robust."

A VisitScotland spokesman said: "The success of Homecoming Scotland 2009 is clear - it delivered 53.7m to Scotland's economy, representing a return of almost ten to one on the core investment of 5.5m. Homecoming delivered 22 per cent above the target of 44m set at the outset of the year. These figures come from a report produced by Ekos, a leading independent UK consultancy."