Record crowds flock to Capital during Festival

The city council data has shown that footfall on key streets like the Royal Mile surged ahead of last year.

In one week, the footfall monitors recorded more pedestrians than any other week since they were introduced in 2008.

Hotels also reported a strong performance, with one recording its busiest ever August.

The figures come after Fringe organisers said they sold more than 1.95 million tickets this year, nearly ten per cent up on the previous year.

Councillor Steve Cardownie, the city's festivals and events champion, said: "These figures back up what I have heard anecdotally. Taxi drivers, restaurant operators and publicans have all been saying that the town is much busier this year.

"It was absolutely thriving and there were hordes of people on the High Street.

"It augurs well for the future and it shows to the prophets of doom and gloom that said that the festivals would suffer a setback that that was clearly not the case."

In the first three weeks of August, 8.48m people were counted passing the council's network of 18 counters across the city, which was 10,000 more than last year.

The highest-ever weekly performance happened in the week beginning August 9, when 3.03m people were counted.

The biggest increases were seen on the Royal Mile, with footfall up by more than a third on last year on each of the first three weeks of August.

Princes Street also saw increases each week, although the biggest rise was 5.5 per cent in the week starting August 9.

Kenneth Wardrop, chief executive of the Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance, said: "July and August have been extremely successful months, with hotel occupancy, footfall, airport passengers and visitor attraction numbers all up.

"The appeal of the city for domestic and international visitors lies in the diversity of the visitor experience."

VisitScotland said the visitor information centres at Princes Street and Edinburgh Airport both recorded an increase in bookings in August, while the airport is said to have enjoyed another strong August.

Hotel occupancy increased in July by 3.1 per cent, to 91.1 per cent - despite last July including The Gathering at Holyrood Park, and early indications suggest that August will be up on last year as well.

Chris Wayne-Wills, regional director of Macdonald Hotels and Resorts, said the Macdonald Holyrood enjoyed its busiest ever August since opening 10 years ago. He added: "There has been a good mix of foreign visitors and people doing the whole 'staycation' thing."