Edinburgh Christmas festival now worth £113m to capital following biggest ever year

Producers Underbelly’s recently released BOP Consulting’s impact assessment for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay showed an economic impact for Edinburgh from the festival in 2017/18 of £39m.

Edinburgh’s Christmas attracted 919,344 unique visitors over 6 weeks in 2017, (up 3.7 per cent from 886,651 in 2015), demonstrating the scale of Edinburgh’s Christmas when compared to the combined total of 1,070,954 unique attendees counted at Edinburgh’s 12 festivals (2015 BOP Consulting, ‘Edinburgh Festivals Impact Study’).

Footfall to Edinburgh’s Christmas three main sites was counted at 4.653 million and City Centre footfall was counted as 20.7 million for the November and December period (for Essential Edinburgh). Retail sales from 2015 to 2017 also show that Edinburgh during the Edinburgh’s Christmas period of November and December had bucked the trend with sales growth of 3.1% against Scotland (-0.2 per cent) and UK (1.3 per cent) trend.

A record-breaking 771,007 tickets were snapped up for Edinburgh’s Christmas rides, attractions and shows: a 11.6 per cent increase on 2016’s 690,878 tickets sold. 98 per cent of people surveyed rated the quality of their experience at Edinburgh’s Christmas as very good or good (76 per cent very good) which tallies with why there is such a high level of repeat visitors (71 per cent of all people surveyed having visited Edinburgh’s Christmas in previous years, an average of 6.6 times).

65 per cent of attendees came from outside Edinburgh and the Lothians; 36 per cent came from other parts of Scotland, 22 per cent from the rest of the UK and 7 per cent were international coming from 47 different countries including Australia, Ireland, USA, Holland, Spain, Canada, France, Germany and New Zealand.

And Edinburgh’s Christmas is a major reason for people to come to the City at this time of year with 64 per cent of people travelling to Edinburgh saying it was the main or only reason for visiting.

Similarly, of those coming to Scotland, for 46 per cent it was their only or main reason for visiting the country. This demonstrates the enormous value of the event to Edinburgh and to Scotland in terms of growing the city’s and the country’s global profile as a winter destination.

The most popular attraction and reason for coming to the festival was the Christmas Markets, which are known around the world and which 85 per cent of people visited, 66 per cent saying it was their main reason for coming.

The Ice Rink was the next most popular which 49 per cent of people visited. People visited an average of 2.9 paid attractions.

Edinburgh’s Christmas once again showed it has a very loyal Edinburgh following with EH postcode holders booking 142,333 tickets with their 20 per cent discount - up 9 per cent on 2016. The level of repeat visits increased with 92 per cent of Edinburgh and Lothians residents attending previous years, an average of 7.7 times.

And 69 per cent of Edinburgh residents said that Edinburgh’s Christmas was the main or only reason they had come into the city centre that day. The attractions appealed to a wide range of ages, 83 per cent of visitors were between 16 and 54 with around 20 per cent for each decade therein.

The economic impact for Scotland was calculated as £88.2 million in additional output. 2017 marked the fifth year of Underbelly producing Edinburgh’s Christmas for the City of Edinburgh Council and the biggest ever year for the city’s six weeks long festive celebrations. Edinburgh’s Christmas’s East Princes Street Gardens Christmas Market was also named as the best in UK (in a survey conducted by McCarthy & Stone).

Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, directors of Underbelly, who produce Edinburgh’s Christmas on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “It’s fantastic to get this independent research and to read its finding of the vast economic impact that Edinburgh’s Christmas brings to the city and to Scotland.

“We’re very proud that Edinburgh’s Christmas is now firmly on the map as a global winter destination with sky high levels of customer satisfaction and return visits, and visitors who consistently rate the event as their major reason for coming to Edinburgh.

“The research shows that the event supports thousands of jobs in the city but it’s great to see how many residents also come and enjoy its attractions. This year, we’re adding Silent Light, a significant new attraction which will raise funds for Edinburgh’s One City Trust, dedicated to fighting inequality and exclusion in the city.”