A total of £900 million was generated for Scotland’s capital city through Marketing Edinburgh (ME) in 2018, delivering a 90:1 return on investment in 2018.
For every £1 of council-funded activity, it generated a £90 return to the city’s economy.
ME also publicised Edinburgh’s story and messages to an audience of more than 538 million people across the world.
The Council set up the body to promote the city as a world-class destination in which to live, work, study, visit and invest.
ME has also been behind council campaigns including the 2050 Edinburgh City Vision, winner of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s Digital Marketing Campaign 2019 award which attracted more people to take part than any other city engagement programme and the city’s successful lobbying for the powers from Scottish Government to introduce a tourist tax.
Make It Edinburgh, the first business tourism campaign designed to mitigate the potential negative impact of Brexit was also a highlight of 2018.
The agency was instrumental in attracting and facilitating global blockbuster film productions including Avengers: Infinity War, placing the city on big screens around the world.
The story behind ME’s year are detailed in the company’s 2018/19 Annual Review, which was released this week and will be scrutinised by councillors next week. You can read it below.
ME Chair, Gordon Robertson, commented: “The management of tourism in Edinburgh is a key task and as we can see if it is done well, it can generate real, tangible economic, social and cultural benefits for the city.
“All of this success is realised through partnership and collaboration – this shows how the Edinburgh tourism industry is delivering.
“There won’t be many other industries that can demonstrate similar returns on investment and for me it shows clearly that a well led, properly resourced tourism industry is essential for Edinburgh’s development.
“Like many other cities across the world, Edinburgh is currently having a discussion as to how best to balance the impacts of tourism while maximising its benefits.
“The hard work of the experienced team at Marketing Edinburgh has given us a strong platform on which to have that discussion as we move through 2019.
“We thank our partners and look forward to continuing to work for the good of Edinburgh together.”
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
