Alex Salmond will hold second Homecoming despite lack of overseas visitors

Published on Tuesday 25 May 2010 22:55

A SECOND year of Homecoming is to be staged in Scotland in 2014, despite new figures revealing that fewer than one in ten visitors to last year's taxpayer-funded tourism events came from overseas.

• Despite the Homecoming outstripping financial goals, the Gathering left debts. Picture: Ian Rutherford

First Minister Alex Salmond unveiled plans for a further year of celebration yesterday, including a pledge to mark the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn on 24 June, 2014.

The programme will also seek to capitalise on the major sporting events to be held in Scotland that year, with tourists expected to flock to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Ryder Cup in Gleneagles.

The announcement came alongside the publication of a review of last year's programme that showed the vast majority of visitors to events sponsored by the Scottish Government came from within Scotland.

The independent review of the initiative, which sought to attract foreign visitors with Scottish connections, showed 80 per cent of the 1.78 million attendees were from Scotland, with half coming from the local area in which the event was held.

One in ten visitors were from elsewhere in the UK, and just 8.6 per cent came from overseas. Despite this, the study, by consultants Ekos, indicated the Homecoming had outstripped its financial goals, as events backed by the budget of 5.5m generated 53.7m in additional tourism revenue for Scotland.

That was 22 per cent more than the 44m target, but the figures drew criticism from creditors of the Gathering, the showpiece event that folded leaving debts of more than 700,000. They claimed it was wrong to boast about huge tourism profits when so many firms were out of pocket.

Martin Hunt, of Tartan Silk, which is owed almost 8,000 by the failed company, said: "I am disappointed the government and Edinburgh Council have not seen their way to paying the creditors, while still claiming these huge, massive figures coming into Scotland's economy."

The Ekos analysis also showed 71,934 additional visitors came to Scotland because of the Homecoming programme, with a further 23,293 saying the event was one reason for their visit.

Mr Salmond said the statistics demonstrated last year's event had been a "remarkable success" as he set out plans for the second event and defended the focus to be placed on the Battle of Bannockburn.

The First Minister insisted visitors from England would be attracted by the celebration, despite the fact that English forces were routed by the Scots during the bloody battle in the First War of Scottish Independence in 1314.

Mr Salmond said: "Scotland's cultural history is of huge attraction to tourists south of the Border and tourists everywhere. Bannockburn is one of Scotland's greatest visitor attractions. The theme of 2014, or using the anniversary theme, will be a very strong point."

His optimism was shared by tourism agency VisitScotland, which reported that visitor numbers in Scotland grew by 2.9 per cent last year, bucking a 4 per cent fall across the world.

But Lewis Macdonald, Scottish Labour's tourism spokesman, said the figures showed the event had been a "damp squib" with the target audience: "I hate to rain on the SNP's Homecoming parade, but they failed to set the heather alight in Scotland's traditional overseas markets.

"The celebrations were mismanaged by the SNP, who used them as a platform for their own separatist agenda."

IN NUMBERS

53.7m

extra revenue for Scotland

5.5m

total expenditure on Homecoming 2009

72,000

additional visitors as a result of Homecoming

23,000

cited Homecoming 'as one of the reasons' for visiting

94%

of visitors rated events as 'very good' or 'good'

3m

invested in Scotland's events industry

79.95

average daily spend of foreign visitors