Ms Edinburgh gets to work with ‘minuscule’ budget of £1.2 million

THE head of Edinburgh’s new tourism body has pledged to rebuild the city’s relationship with VisitScotland, as she admitted she is likely to have a budget of just £1.2 million at her disposal for the foreseeable future.

Lucy Bird, who landed the £100,000 job to sell Scotland’s capital to the world two months ago, said her new organisation would be working “very closely” with the national tourism body, which previously had its funding stripped by Edinburgh City Council amid concerns over a lack of promotion of the capital.

Ms Bird’s budget is nearly £2m less than that envisaged for Marketing Edinburgh when plans for the organisation were originally drawn up by the local authority – and compares with a £4.9m budget at the disposal of the equivalent body in Glasgow.

But the former TV producer has ruled out the city raising extra money through a “bed tax” or tourism levy. She said a new business plan for Marketing Edinburgh, due to be produced in the autumn, would identify potential sources of revenue, but admitted the private sector had yet to put any money behind the new body, which has been more than two years in the planning stages since VisitScotland’s funding was cut.

Senior councillors and officials had been at loggerheads with the tourism body, which had been accused of favouring other parts of Scotland, as well as neglecting Edinburgh’s festivals. It had initially created its own arms’-length company, DEMA, but decided to invest in an independent company. It will be responsible for attracting inward investors, film producers and conferences to the city. The original business case for Marketing Edinburgh envisaged its promotional budget rising from £3.08m in the current financial year to £5m by 2013-14.

Ms Bird said: “The budget we have at the moment is minuscule compared to other cities, I know that. However, I am only a couple of months into the job. At the moment it is about building relationships within the public and private sectors and developing new partnerships.

“The problem previously in Edinburgh was that there were a lot of different campaigns running, there were mixed messages and a lot of duplication. Looking ahead, it’s about people pulling together and ensure there is much more clarity and consistency about how the city is promoted. We’ll be working closely with VisitScotland, including investment in relevant campaigns where there are shared objectives that will enable Edinburgh to be positioned effectively as Scotland’s capital city, a key visitor destination and as the festival city.”

Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland, said: “We are easily able to adapt our own existing campaigns to make them more relevant to Edinburgh, and that’s the kind of thing I’d hope we’ll be able to do a lot more of in future.”