Friday, November 29, 2019
A rallying call has been issued by the main tourism body for Edinburgh for ensuring that businesses, employees and their dependents have their say in an ongoing drive to set a new long-term direction for the industry.
Edinburgh’s tourism sector supports 33,000 jobs and is worth around £1.5 billion to the economy, with the number of overnight visitors going up by almost a third in recent years, to around 4.3 million.
However, the Scottish capital was named along with Amsterdam, Rome, Venice and Barcelona among a list of “places that can no longer cope with their own popularity.”
Earlier in the year, a new campaign, Citizen, was launched to “defend” the city against overtourism, gentrification, the privatization of public space and a “rampant growth model.”
Principal aims for the future of the tourism industry include ensuring tourism developments “contribute to the quality of life for local people,” that the city’s heritage is “cherished and cared for” and that Edinburgh retains its authenticity as a ‘living, working’ city.
Donald Emslie, acting chair of Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) said, “Edinburgh’s tourism sector creates opportunities for people from across our communities, upskilling our workforce and attracting talent from all over the world. Tourism also supports a huge and varied supply chain touching many different sectors in the city and beyond. There is no doubt that ‘tourism is everyone’s business’, and therefore, we urge everyone to make their views known.”
Edinburgh World Heritage director Adam Wilkinson said, “We will certainly encourage our followers and supporters to complete the consultation to ensure balanced feedback is received. The strategy is a marked departure from the previous one, and is now focused on managing tourism responsibly versus simply driving growth. At its heart it is a focus on place, and people.”
Tags: edinburgh tourism
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