Tourism chief hails success of Homecoming
SCOTLAND'S tourism boss today hailed the Year of Homecoming as a great success and played down the financial debacle over the showpiece event The Gathering.
Philip Riddle, chief executive of VisitScotland, said the year-long programme of events built around the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns had raised pride in Scotland and boosted visitor numbers.
And he said it looked as if the target of generating a 40 million boost to the economy would be "easily achieved".
Mr Riddle praised The Gathering – the two-day clan event in Holyrood Park in summer – as "fantastically successful", despite the 600,000 debt run up by organisers.
And he said the public investment of 500,000 had produced a 10m benefit for the economy.
"The people who went found it a life-changing experience. Unfortunately something went wrong behind the scenes and the private backers did make a loss, but you have to admire the ambition."
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Weather for Edinburgh
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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