Sales of Edinburgh tourist smart card increase

www.edinburgh.org

A tourist smart card, providing visitor access to many of the top attractions in Edinburgh, has seen a major increase in sales despite an overall decline in consumer spending.

Official figures show that 9,000 cards, called the Edinburgh Pass, have been sold through the end of April. The sales represent a 4.5 per cent increase over the same period last year. Easter sales this year were reportedly double those of Easter 2008.

VisitScotland developed the card at a cost of £110,000, which was funded by Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians and the Edinburgh city council.

Tourism bosses in Scotland are calling the sales encouraging, but say that so far, they are less than 25 per cent of the initial 40,000 target for the year.

Edinburgh’s top three attractions, Edinburgh Castle, Royal Yacht Britannia and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, have not been willing to join the smart card scheme, meaning that there is little or no chance of the initial targets being met.

Sinead Feltoe, the regional director of VisitScotland, said: “To have doubled sales over Easter is a sign that the pass is doing well, but also shows that people are looking for value.”

Feltoe added: “It is great to see that growth and we are continuing to grow sales internationally, working with travel agents and other agents like Expedia. When people are looking for value, this is a great example of groups working together.”

Thanks to news.scotsman.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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