Don't take tourist trade for granted

THE Edinburgh International Film Festival has come to a hugely successful close and it's just a few weeks before the main event – the Edinburgh International Festival and its Fringe – get under way.

It should be a time of excitement, with a bit of back-slapping. These are marvellous artistic events.

We should be delighted the Festival and Fringe get bigger and better each year as tourism is one of the most important industries for Edinburgh and Scotland's continued economic success. It employs 40,000 people across Edinburgh and the Lothians and is worth £1.7 billion to the area's economy annually, so it everybody's business.

Instead, what we have is a city in which it is nearly impossible to move around thanks to the innumerable roadworks, a debate over whether hotels should introduce a bed tax, a fall-out in the comedy world and now a spat between the council and VisitScotland about who can market Edinburgh the most effectively.

And all this at a time when VisitScotland's Philip Riddle says the tourism industry in Edinburgh is facing "significant pressures... as a result of escalating costs and weakening demand".

It's enough to make even the most Festival-loving citizen want to rent their house out for the summer and flee to calmer climes.

Of course, the roadworks – apart from those dictated by the tram – could all miraculously disappear just in time for the tourist influx. The other issues are not so easily dealt with, but they need to be ironed out if the city is to ride out the credit crunch and ensure the reputation of Edinburgh as a world-class tourist destination is retained.

Take the new Edinburgh Comedy Festival. The four biggest Fringe venues – the Assembly Rooms, Underbelly, Gilded Balloon and the Pleasance – have joined forces with their own programme which has led to concern from other promoters that the new venture will take audiences away from the Fringe.

Comedy has become one of the Fringe's mainstays, yet if the long-term plan of this new "festival" is to be marketed separately to the Fringe and even be held at some other time in the year, would that really be such a bad thing? It would give the city another tourism boost during the year – as has the moving of the Film Festival to June – rather than the previous eggs in one basket approach to August.

Then there's the bed tax idea, which could add an extra two per cent on to the price of a hotel room per night. Surely the current financial climate should be deterring any thoughts about making it more expensive for people to come to Edinburgh? It's an idea which should be put to bed once and for all.

The main issue, though, is the new row between the council and VisitScotland after a reduction in the latter's grant of £125,000. Despite still receiving £500,000 from the council, VisitScotland believes the local authority is shifting its focus and wants to increase its own promotion of the Capital, rather than using the national agency. That belief is not unfounded given that the city's economic leader, Councillor Tom Buchanan, has said that Edinburgh is best placed to promote itself.

But now is not the time for more uncertainty in the tourism industry. Edinburgh rode out the impacts of foot-and-mouth and the September 11 atrocities in New York, but things have started to slow.

At this time, when it has little money to play with, the council should be concentrating on ensuring VisitScotland gets the strategy right, not saying "it's our ball" and heading off in a huff.

Those on the tourism frontline don't need duplication of effort, more bureaucracy, and more costs. Tourists don't need confusing information. And Edinburgh doesn't need a ridiculous row which can only damage its reputation abroad.

The Fringe performers are not the only ones needing to get their acts together.

Stick it to them
EDINBURGH'S councillors come in for some stick. But then it would seem that some of them have been beaten around the head with one.

After all, which politician in their right mind would even consider spending £100,000 on new furniture for the council chamber when the school meals service is in disarray, primary schools are closing, others don't have cash for textbooks, crèches are being shut and voluntary services are being scaled back? Oh yes, the same ones who have just spent another £100,000 on a survey of the city's 28,000 trees. I wonder if they counted how many sticks could be made from the branches?

Penny's from heaven
SO I'm sentimental, but I think it's great that Rod Stewart has spoken openly about his love for his wife Penny. I think it's her normality which has proved her to be the woman who finally tamed the rock star.

In these day of instant celebrity it's amazing that she has managed to keep both feet firmly on the ground, despite the wealth which now surrounds her.

You never hear of any diva behaviour from her – and indeed she took it upon herself to write an article for the Evening News two years ago to deny that she had lost her pregnancy weight immediately after giving birth, despite what had been reported.

Apparently they are also trying for a second child, so Edinburgh could maybe see the Stewarts return for another christening in the not too distant future. I certainly hope so.