Tourism chiefs admit visitor targets likely to be missed

TOURISM leaders in the Capital have admitted that the city is set to fail on key tourism targets.

Edinburgh has been set a target of increasing visitor numbers by 63 per cent by 2015, as part of the Scottish Government's plans to up national visitor numbers by 50 per cent in the same period.

And in order to achieve the target, the city council had set itself a target of increasing visitor spend by 15 per cent before 2012.

But the city's economic development leader Tom Buchanan admitted that although Edinburgh's tourism sector is holding up well compared to many other UK cities, it is unlikely to achieve the tough targets it has been set.

It is also understood that VisitScotland is no longer actively promoting its national "vision" of increasing tourism expenditure by 50 per cent by 2015.

"We will keep the targets there but we recognise they will be extremely challenging to achieve," said Cllr Buchanan.

Asked if there is any possibility of achieving the wider 2015 target, he said: "63 per cent is a seriously challenging rate. How can we tell when we are getting out of a recession? We don't know for sure if we're seeing a dead cat bounce or a sustainable increase. If the economy does start to recover it may be achievable but if it stays in the doldrums it is less likely we will get anywhere near it."

He hoped the Olympics and Commonwealth Games could provide a knock-on boost to the city's tourism sector before 2015.

Latest figures compiled by the economic development department of the city council show tourist expenditure increased by 4.39 per cent to 481 million in the three months to the end of June, while tourist numbers increased by 3.4 per cent to 3.3m.

Despite the figures being better than many cities, they are below the target of increasing visitor spend by five per cent a year.

Dave Anderson, director of city development at the city council, said: "As expenditure needs to increase by an average of five per cent a year for the objective to be achieved by 2012, the statistics indicate that, at this early stage, the economic development unit is below target.

"However, tourism indicators from the last period, an exceptionally successful summer, may improve the indicator when the new figures become available."

Sinead Feltoe, regional director for VisitScotland, said: "Tourism in Edinburgh and the Lothians has fared well this year given the global recession. Positive indicators include the rise in visits to local attractions and hotel occupancy as well as attendance levels at various events."