Edinburgh to hire £100,000 tourism tsar to boost profile

EDINBURGH is to create a new independent tourism body and "tsar" after research found it was lagging behind UK rivals in the money it spends on dedicated marketing of the city.

Scotland's capital has less than a third of the marketing budget enjoyed by Manchester and Birmingham, while it also lags well behind Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow.

Edinburgh city council created a new marketing alliance less than two years ago, but it is to be shut down and a limited company created out of a merger with other agencies in the city. It is hoped the capital will be able to boost its marketing spend from the current 2 million to more then 5m within three years.

The new body will be called Marketing Edinburgh, and the search for a chief executive, who will be paid a salary of more than 100,000, is due to get under way within weeks.

The organisation will lead efforts to promote the city around the world, secure inward investment, attract conferences and events, and promote the capital as a film and television location.

It is hoped the city's airport, universities, hotel operators, festivals and private businesses will be persuaded to plough money into Marketing Edinburgh, which is planned to operate independently from both the city council and VisitScotland.

The council pulled the plug on its 500,000 grant to Visit-Scotland last year and pumped more than 1.38 million into the creation of the Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (DEMA), which has struggled to make an impact amid concerns it is too closely aligned with the local authority.

Although the council will be the principal funder of Marketing Edinburgh, its contribution is expected to be scaled back over the next few years, while funding from other organisations and private sector firms is brought on board to the company. Edinburgh Film Focus and the Edinburgh Convention Bureau, the city's business tourism body, are to be merged into the new body.

A business plan for the new company, due to be operating by the end of the year, states that Marketing Edinburgh is expected to create a "premium membership scheme" for private firms to help raise funds. It is hoped it will curb "wasteful duplication" and the "plethora" of promotional websites that are currently running.

The business plan states: "Although the council's mandate is vital, the body must operate separately from the council. Even if it's a company limited by guarantee, it must talk and behave like a commercial company."

Alan Johnston, the current chairman of DEMA, said: "The idea with the new company is that it will be able to stand on its own and will be able to deliver strong, creative and joined-up campaigns.

"The 2m that is spent promoting Edinburgh at the moment does not include the money that many other organisations are spending to promote themselves.We are not asking anyone to spend any more, but help ensure that the spending is more aligned and better co-ordinated."

Scott Taylor, chief executive of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, which has a budget of 4.9m, said: "This is absolutely the right thing for Edinburgh to do. It will help Scotland compete with other parts of the UK and our rivals overseas."