Call for more promotion of Festival

VISITSCOTLAND and Scottish Enterprise have been accused of not doing enough to promote Edinburgh's festivals.

Jonathan Mills, director of the Edinburgh International Festival, warned there was a sense of complacency over the popularity of the events and urged more hard work to promote the annual festival season.

At a public forum on the festivals, he said: "When I first came here I was quite shocked by the level of disengagement of some agencies that I thought would be essential to the promotion of these festivals, such as VisitScotland and some parts of Scottish Enterprise.

"There is a level of complacency about the number of people who come to Scotland as a matter of course."

VisitScotland chief executive Malcolm Roughead said: "We are not complacent about the festivals and have delivered a wide range of support."