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ANNUAL REPORT 2015
FRASERS HOSPITALITY TRUST
EDINBURGH
Tourism Market
Edinburgh is Scotland’s capital and
the UK’s second largest financial
hub outside of London; it is the
historic home to many global
financial institutions. The medieval
Old Town, elegant Georgian New
Town, Edinburgh Castle and Arthur’s
Seat, an extinct volcano and its
surrounding parks, make Edinburgh a
picturesque and popular destination.
It was voted the second best UK
destination of 2014 by TripAdvisor.
For YTD June 2015, there were
56 million trips to Scotland, a 2%
decrease on the same period in
2014. There were 13 million trips
in June 2015, an increase of 8%
compared to June 2014 although
expenditure dropped by 13% in June
2015.
In 2013, the latest year for which
data on domestic and overseas
visitor splits are available, 2.2 million
domestic visitors and 1.3 million
overseas visitors, made up 3.5 million
visitors to Edinburgh. There were 5.4
million domestic visitor nights and
6.9 million overseas visitor nights, a
total of 12.3 million visitor nights in
2013.
Domestic visitors stayed an average
of 2.5 nights while overseas visitors
stayed for 5.3 days, making the total
average nights per visitor 3.6 nights.
Average expenditure per visit was
GBP260 ($400) for domestic visitors
and GBP455 ($700) per international
guest, for an average of GBP334
($514).The average daily expenditure
in 2014 was GBP79.06 ($122), down
from GBP86.94 ($134) in 2012.
Edinburgh’s top inbound source
markets are the USA, (14.8%),
Germany (13.4%), France (7.4%),
Ireland (6.8%), Australia (6.0%),
Spain (5.0%), and Italy (4.8%). 64%
of overseas visitors to Edinburgh
cited holidays as their main reason
for their visit in 2013. 21% were
visiting friends or relatives, 10% were
travelling for business and 1% were
studying.
48% of domestic and overseas
visitors stayed in a hotel or
guesthouse, 35% stayed at friends’ or
relatives’ houses, 3% stayed in self-
catering accommodation, another
3% stayed in a camp or caravan, 1%
stayed in a bed & breakfast while 1 %
stayed in their property.
The top attractions in 2014 were the
National Museum of Scotland with
1.6 million visitors, the Edinburgh
Castle with 1.5 million visitors, and
the Scottish National Gallery with 1.3
million visitors. The latter increased
visitation by 39% compared to 2013.
2.2 million visitors attended the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival in in 2014.
This is particularly impressive given
Edinburgh’s full time population is
only 1.3 million.
Hospitality Industry Performance
2014 was a record year for Edinburgh
with growth in occupancy, ADR
and RevPAR of 1%, 5.2% and 6.2%
respectively. 1H 2015 occupancy was
77.1%, a 2% increase from 1H 2014.
The market has recovered to pre-
recession levels. In 2014, Edinburgh
was a top three European city for
occupancy rankings, behind London
and ahead of Paris. 2015 occupancy is
forecast to be the highest in Europe.
According to VisitScotland’s
Occupancy Survey, there is no
difference in room occupancy
between weekdays and weekends for
the Edinburgh & Lothian area which
was also the best performing area of
all 12 regions surveyed.
MARKET OVERVIEW
