TOPOSOPHY PARTNERS WITH THE EDINBURGH TOURISM ACTION GROUP TO PAVE THE WAY FOR THE CITY'S 2030 TOURISM STRATEGY

What will be the global megatrends that will shape tourism ten years from now? What are the issues that will most affect city tourism, and how could tourism grow in a historic city such as Edinburgh and still be sustainable?

To find answers to these questions, TOPOSOPHY has partnered with the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) for Phase One of building the city’s 2030 tourism strategy. 

In order to create a tourism strategy that is dependable and well-adjusted to the destination that it is intended to serve, first it’s essential to carry out a profound analysis of the present situation and the many interconnected factors that will shape tourism demand and supply in the years to come. This is the rationale behind the first phase of the Edinburgh Tourism 2030 Strategy, that TOPOSOPHY will be performing for ETAG, together with its partners including VisitScotland, Scottish Enterprise and the City of Edinburgh Council. 

Arrivals in Edinburgh have increased sharply in recent years, with visitor spending increasing 30% from £1 billion to £1.3 billion in the five years to 2016. Meanwhile, the city’s famous Fringe Festival has attracted 1 million more visitors over the course of the past decade. 

While there is much for the city’s tourism sector to celebrate, the organisations that make up ETAG are keen to ensure that the city’s next tourism strategy plans for the long-term sustainability of all kinds of tourism activity in the city. They are also aware of Edinburgh’s potential to boost tourism arrivals beyond the Scottish capital too. 

Explaining the aims for the partnership with TOPOSOPHY on this project, Gillian Richardson of ETAG said “The aim of phase 1 is to ensure that the process of developing the new strategy is based on a robust and transparent evidence base which will inform the future phases of the project, set Edinburgh’s future strategy development in the context of the global tourism market, and ultimately inform the  development of the strategic priorities for tourism in the city up to 2030.”

During the coming months, we at TOPOSOPHY will analyse and interpret a wide range of data relating to all aspects of Edinburgh’s urban development and its tourism sector, and will inform ETAG and its partners about our conclusions and recommendations at the end of February 2019.

Discover more about our projects on urban tourism and destination development

Interested to know more about our work on urban tourism development, growth management and the collaborative economy? Find out more about our past work on these projects below: 

• The Collaborative Economy and Scottish Tourism 
• ETAG Conference 2018: Managing Growth Responsibly  
• Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Destination Strategy 2018-2023
• European Cities Marketing: Manifest on the Future of DMOS
• European Cities Marketing: Toolbox on Tourism Growth in Europe 
• Pacific Asia Travel Association: Stepping Out of the Crowd – encouraging dispersal for Asian outbound markets