Edinburgh Festival: Hotel bookings ‘as stong as ever’ despite Olympics

TOURISM industry leaders claim accommodation bookings in the capital are as strong as ever this month - despite a bleak last few months and bookings slumping in London this month.

The Edinburgh Hotels Association said all the evidence from the sector was that there had been no noticeable downturn in business, despite the clash with the Olympics.

It said the festival period was proving more resilient than the rest of 2012 because most of the festival business comes from over the border.

But Colin Paton, head of the Edinburgh Hotels Association, said recent months had suffered due to high air fares from overseas, the state of the economy in some of the European markets and the impact of the poor weather in Scotland on the UK “staycation” market.

He added: “From everything I’ve heard the festival period is pretty much as strong as ever.

“Part of the reason for that is it is very reliant on the domestic market and those bookings appear to have held up pretty well.

“The same cannot be said about the American and European market in recent months, which have been quite badly affected.

“All the evidence is that the demand has very much softened to come to Scotland because of the various economic conditions in their own countries and the cost of coming here on holiday.

“Since most of the festival business is Anglocentric it hasn’t really affected the festival period.”

Meanwhile the head of umbrella body Festivals Edinburgh has insisted she is “extremely optimistic” about the ability of the capital’s main events to fend off competitoin from the London Olympics.

Director Faith Liddell said the main events were likely to generate more international media than normal because of the clash with the games and said ticket sales appeared to be unaffected so far.

She said extra programming had been specially planned due to the Olympics clash, while planning was already underway for 2014 when Glasgow is hosting the Commonwealth Games, which will clash with the opening weekend of the Fringe and finish just a few days before the start of the Edinburgh International Festival.

And she pointed out that many festival-goers were able to watch Olympic events when they were out and about in the city on mobile and tablet devices, as well as TV screens installed in venues.

“More international media are here in Edinburgh for the festivals than ever before this year. Many of them are not accredited for the games but are in Britain because the games are on.

“We have been planning for this for the last two or three years. We’ll be looking at what lessons can be learned from this year for the Commonwealth Games in two years time.”

More Fringe shows than ever before are being staged this year, despite predictions that performers and promoters would shun the city due to the Olympics clash. But this year has seen promoters like Gilded Balloon, Summerhall and the Stand Comedy Club expand their programming, and the return of the Famous Spiegeltent to a new arena on George Street.

The Fringe mounted extra marketing campaigns in London and Glasgow, among other cities this year, as part of a drive to help curb the impact of the festival being on at the same time as the Olympics.

Fringe chief executive Kath Mainland added: “The atmosphere in the city is really exciting. People are here ready for the Fringe to start.

“It is really exciting the Olympics are in London and it is exciting they are happening at the same time as the world’s greatest cultural event.”