RECORD SMASHING YEAR FOREDINBURGH’S CHRISTMAS

6 January 2015

  • 541,151 tickets were sold for showsand attractions at Edinburgh’s Christmas 2014/15
  • 40.17% rise on ticket buyers since 2013/14
  • 3.6 million people visited the Edinburgh Christmas sites, increasing footfall by 37.6% on 2013
  • Footfall during the Edinburgh’s Christmas period was UP in the City Centre by 5.1% and on Prince’s Street by 8.6% smashing the UK national average, expected to be DOWN by up to 1%

Edinburgh’s Christmas has enjoyed a massive, record-busting year with more than half a million visitors buying tickets for the festival’s many attractions – up by more than 40% on the previous year.

A total of more than 541,151 people paid to take part in this year’s festival, compared with last year’s figure of 386,045, a year on year increase of 40.17%.

And the success doesn’t endwith the numbers of tickets sold – with more than 3.6 million people visiting the two major sites, Princes Street Gardens and St Andrew Square, during the run of the Christmas festival, an increase of 37.6% on the 2013 festival, which had a footfall of 2,629,416.

The positive impact on city centre businesses is reinforced by figures released by Essential Edinburgh, the company which runs the city centre Business Improvement District, which shows footfall figures up in the Edinburgh Christmas period by 8.6% on last year in Princes Street, and by 15.6% at St Andrew Square (South St Andrew Street). In general, the city centre footfall figures were up by more than 5.1% on the previous year, compared with an estimated UK average of -1% for the same period (UK national figures are yet to be released for the period but based on weekly figures which have been released, the average UK footfall is expected to down by up to 1%).

The figures have delighted the festival organisers. Charlie Wood of Underbelly, and producer of Edinburgh’s Christmas, said: “We are obviously thrilled at the figures- over half a million people bought tickets for shows and attractions at Edinburgh’s Christmas, which is equivalent to more than 10% of the entire population of Scotland.

“It demonstrates the scale and attraction of the festival. We set out to make Edinburgh’s Christmas one of the world’s best places to be at Christmastime and these figures show that we’re on our way to achieving that.

“As ever, we will be working in the next few months to see what worked well, what didn’t work so well, and how we can improve the festival to make sure that next year’s is an even greater success for the people of the city and visitors to the city to look forward to and enjoy. In particular, we want to work with other areas of Edinburgh to involve them in Edinburgh’s Christmas and extend the benefits to businesses and residents in those areas.”

Councillor Steve Cardownie, Edinburgh’s Festivals and Events Champion, said: “Our winter festivals are the envy of the world and rightly so. This has been another record-breaking year, and the huge boost to footfall is good news for city centre businesses and the local economy. I think residents will agree that the programme was even bigger and better this year, and these results just go to prove there is no place that can beat Edinburgh at Christmas.”

Andy Neal, Chief Executive of Essential Edinburgh, added: “We support Edinburgh’s Christmas because it helps make our fantastic city centre an even better place to work, visit and live at a very special and important time of the year.

“This year’s figures demonstrate the great value that high quality events bring to the city centre and the businesses there – with large numbers of people coming to the area to take part.

“We will be talking with our levy-payers to see what aspects worked best for them, and which aspects might need to be tweaked, but overall we should all acknowledge what has been a fantastic event.”

Ends

FURTHER INFORMATION

A selection of photos from Edinburgh’s Christmas can be found at: Edinburgh's Christmas 2014/15 Photo Selection

Further information please contact Fraser Smith, Head of Press, Underbelly on 07801 55 22 85.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. About Edinburgh’s Christmas funders and sponsors

The City of Edinburgh Council funds Edinburgh's Christmas and it is also supported by Essential Edinburgh and Marketing Edinburgh.

Event Sponsors: Heineken UK, Diageo, Drambuie, Qatar Airways, LIDL, Thwaites, Transport for Edinburgh, Aggreko, Thistly Cross Cider

Event Partners: Edinburgh Airport, Hotel Du Vin, Arnold Clark, Marketing Edinburgh, Essential Edinburgh, Citroen Retail Group

Event Media Partners: Edinburgh Evening News, Forth 1, Forth 2, and The List.

2. Underbelly Limited

Underbelly is a UK based, live entertainment company. Their events and festivals division operates one of the largest operations at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe selling over 250,000 tickets in 2014. 2015will the seventh year of Udderbelly Festival at Southbank Centre and the fourth year of London Wonderground at Southbank Centre. Elsewhere Underbelly also produces Edinburgh’s Christmas; Comedy Hullabaloo with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon; West End Live in Trafalgar Square for Westminster City Council and the Society of London Theatre; and Pride in London. Through their Underbelly Productions arm they produce and promote live shows in London, throughout the UK and on tour internationally. In 2014, Underbelly sold over 1,000,000 tickets to their various events.