Saving Edinburgh's soul: can circular economy help avoid over-tourism in Edinburgh?

1.

Saving Edinburgh's soul: can circular
economy help avoid over-tourism in
Edinburgh?
Presented by group 2:
Akzhan Iskakova
Nguyen Bao Linh
Bakber Maishev
Huamei Xie
Maria Fernanda de la Selva Hernandez

2.

Table of Contents
AIM/OBJECTIVES/METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH
OVER-TOURISM IN EDINBURGH
01
ECONOMIC CAPITAL
02
CULTURAL CAPITAL
03
SOCIAL AND HUMAN CAPITAL
04
ENVIRONMENTAL CAPITAL
Tourism Employment
Investment in Tourism
Major cultural heritage sites/resources
“Hidden treasures”: less-known, minor heritage sites/resources
Cultural activities and creative industries
Historic urban landscape
Community Well-being
Visitor Satisfaction
Biodiversity: Number of flora and fauna species & Urban
green areas
Waste reduction: recycling rates
KEY RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
LIMITATIONS & SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE STUDY
REFERENCES

3.

Aim: to develop recommendation on solving issues with overtourism in Edinburgh
Objectives
of the
research
Analysis of 2-4 indicators for each type of capital regarding the city of Edinburgh
Develop relevant recommendations to increase circularity and sustainability of the city based on
the analysis of these indicators.
Develop a circular tourism model for Edinburgh
Methodology
• Desk research
• Guided questions
• Collaboration

4.

Tourist Arrival
2019: 4.9 million tourists
Attraction
2017
2018
2019
Annual change (20182019)
Change in visitor
numbers (2017 and
2019)
National Museum of
Scotland
2,166,000
2,227,773
2,210,114
-0.8%
+2,4%
Edinburgh Castle
2,064,000
2,111,578
2,167,366
2.6%
+5,1%
Scottish National Gallery
1,601,000
1,739,128
1,583,231
-9.0%
-1,1%
St Giles Cathedral
1,286,000
1,330,816
1,217,991
-8.5%
-5,3%
Royal Botanic Garden
Edinburgh
905,300
826,860
893,263
8.0%
-1,3%
National War Museum
764,000
798,165
805,934
1.0%
+5.5%
Regimental Museum
of The Royal Scots
Dragoon Guards
-
794,253
800,607
0.8%
-
Edinburgh Bus Tours
690,000
702,789
614,928
-12.5%
-10,8%
Edinburgh Zoo
556,200
509,714
529,693
3.9%
-4,7%-
Scottish National
Gallery of Modern Art
606,000
569,937
508,090
-10.9%
-16,2%
379,000
384,579
385,733
-0.3%
+1,8%
358,000
358,312
372,743
4.3%
+4,1%
Royal Yacht Britannia
390,000
390,952
357,721
-8.5%
-8,3%
Our Dynamic Earth
322,000
331,751
337,059
1.6%
+4,7%
Scottish Parliament
268,000
282,524
273,201
-3.3%
+1,9%
Scotch Whisky
Experience
Scottish National
Portrait Gallery
Local population
548 residents
Festivals & Events
2019: 3 million attendants of
Festival Fringe
Culture & Heritage
Most tourists concentrate in
cultural attractions

5.

ECONOMIC CAPITAL
Tourism Employment
34,000 tourism jobs in 2017, higher than
any other region in Scotland
Tourism employment in Edinburgh = 16%
total tourism employment in Scotland
Tourism Revenue
GBP 1.87 billions of tourism expenditure from
both domestic and international tourists
Tourism Investment
GBP 25 million fund for tourism recovery
post COVID-19 across Scotland
The prospects of the new tourist tax: GBP
5-35 million raised per year

6.

Tourism Enterprises
Recommendations for
circular tourism
development in
Edinburgh
• Capacity development of
tourism workforce
• Responsible business support
scheme
Figure 1: Tourism businesses as a share of business base
by local authorities in Scotland in 2017
Source: Scottish Government, Office for National Statistics
(Inter Departmental Business Register), cited in Tourism
Leadership Group by the Scottish Government, 2018.

7.

CULTURAL CAPITAL
Major cultural heritage sites/resources
Attraction
2017
2018
2019
Annual change (20182019)
Change in visitor
numbers (2017 and
2019)
National Museum of
Scotland
2,166,000
2,227,773
2,210,114
-0.8%
+2,4%
Edinburgh Castle
2,064,000
2,111,578
2,167,366
2.6%
+5,1%
Scottish National Gallery
1,601,000
1,739,128
1,583,231
-9.0%
-1,1%
St Giles Cathedral
1,286,000
1,330,816
1,217,991
-8.5%
-5,3%
Royal Botanic Garden
Edinburgh
905,300
826,860
893,263
8.0%
-1,3%
National War Museum
764,000
798,165
805,934
1.0%
+5.5%
Regimental Museum
of The Royal Scots
Dragoon Guards
-
794,253
800,607
0.8%
-
Edinburgh Bus Tours
690,000
702,789
614,928
-12.5%
-10,8%
Edinburgh Zoo
556,200
509,714
529,693
3.9%
-4,7%-
Scottish National
Gallery of Modern Art
606,000
569,937
508,090
-10.9%
-16,2%
379,000
384,579
385,733
-0.3%
+1,8%
358,000
358,312
372,743
4.3%
+4,1%
Royal Yacht Britannia
390,000
390,952
357,721
-8.5%
-8,3%
Our Dynamic Earth
322,000
331,751
337,059
1.6%
+4,7%
Scottish Parliament
268,000
282,524
273,201
-3.3%
+1,9%
Scotch Whisky
Experience
Scottish National
Portrait Gallery
Source: The City Council of Edinburgh, 2018, 2019, 2021

8.

Major cultural heritage sites/resources
Source: https://my.atlistmaps.com/map/724d3f06-9e9c-41b3-a7d0-46d088e0bba1?share=true

9.

“Hidden treasures”: less-known, minor heritage sites/resources
Use of thematic
interpretation to disperse
visitors:
Water of Leith
Dean village
Panda & Sons
(speakeasy)
Dr. Neil’s Garden
Cramond
Surgeon’s Hall Museum
Portobello Beach
Lauriston Castle
The Museum on the
Mound
Craigmillar Castle
Source: https://my.atlistmaps.com/map/9bf05ef0-b590-4e1f-832c-5d9d79ff73f5?share=true

10.

Cultural activities and
creative industries
One of biggest cultural activities in Edinburgh is art festivals.
• Edinburgh Art Festival is one of the five major arts festivals in the
world, and it is held in Edinburgh every August. Edinburgh is the
capital of Scotland and its economic and cultural centre. Whenever an
art festival is held, top artists and new artists from all over the world
will gather here to show their inspiration and creativity.
• Every year, there are 12 major festivals in Edinburgh, attracting
more than 45 million people from all over the world. Edinburgh
Fringe Festival is one of them.
• The figure indicate that the numbers of festival Audience from
2017 to 2019, the numbers sold tickets increased year by
year, reached to 3012490 in 2019.
• The geographic location of Audience 2019 are from all over the
world. It shows 35% of residents 36% are from UK, 22% are scottish
and 7% are international audience.

11.

Cultural activities and
creative industries
Recommendations:
• Promote recycle scheme
for reusable cups
• work with food organizations to
donate any unused and surplus
food.
• Lease equipment or partner with
organizations to share equipment,
costumes and materials

12.

Historic urban landscape
• Edinburgh is a typical coastal tourist city. Every
year it attracts thousands of visitors from all over the
world. The most popular reasons for Edinburgh's
popularity are the city's history and location.
• The historic buildings all contain unique cultural
features that are both a concentrated reflection of the
historical development and, to a certain extent, the
customs of the regions. Most of the famous tourist
attractions are within the city, and Edinburgh has 50
record conservation areas and 10,108 record historic
buildings. The state of conservation of Edinburgh's
historic buildings is less than ideal, and only by
paying attention to the conservation of historic
buildings can the sustainable development of the city's
tourism industry be achieved.

13.

Historic urban
landscape
Recommendations:
1. use clean energy bus instead of fuel car travel, limit
the number of vehicles in the scenic area travel
2. limit the number of people and the carrying capacity
of scenic spots, reasonably divide various areas, and
prohibit excessive development.

14.

Community wellbeing
SOCIAL AND HUMAN CAPITAL
Demographics
Insert the title of your subtitle Here
Population
548 000 people
Ethnicity
91.7% White
5.5% Asians
0.9% Africans
Religion
91.7% White
44.8% No religion
43.3% Christian
2.3% Muslim
Economic Status
77% Economically active
24.4% Economically inactive
(Students, Long-term sick)
Change in population
By 2043, 72 %, 75+
Education
In 2020, 65.2% of higher
education degree holders

15.

Community wellbeing
Percentage of residents who are satisfied with tourism in the destination 85-94 per cent
Perception of improvement of the area due to tourism more than 80 per cent
9 in 10 agree that Scotland’s overseas reputation is enhanced by tourism
“Tourism in Scotland helps us to develop a positive reputation overseas”
Source: Visit Scotland statistical data

16.

Visitor Satisfaction
As Moscardo said “Mindful visitors will also have a greater appreciation and understanding of a site, and such understanding can provide
both support for changing their behaviors on site and for the conservation of the site.
There are 5 things that can facilitate it:
1.Help visitors find their way around
2.Make connections to visitors and involve them (engagement, ask their interests, use activities that involve many senses)
3.Offer variety (provide diverse social experiences, require dif levels of physical activity, diversity of interpretive media)
4.Tell a good story that makes sense (clear, well organized, share of common ground with their audiences)
5.Know and respect visitors (learn what their expectations and motives, their characteristics, interviews, surveys, focus groups)
Source: Jane M. Beattie , Ingrid E. Schneider, "Does service type influence satisfaction?:
A case study of Edinburgh Castle" , p6

17.

Visitor Satisfaction
Circularity outcomes:
High level of education shows the tendency of people working in tourism sites will keep staying educated enough to
propose and offer wise and proper innovative ideas to solve the problem of over crowdedness in Edinburgh.
Involvement of locals by offering them free entry for popular heritage sites is another tool that will encourage them to
feel the responsibility for their city and its preservation.
START-UP
IDEA
• 3-5 routes
• Starting points: popular
places (Edinburgh
Cathedral, National Gallery
and etc)
• QR codes
• Each 10 000 steps = 8-10
pounds voucher ( castle
tickets, bus tours and any
entrance fees.
(SDG 11)

18.

Number of flora and fauna species & Urban green areas
Green spaces of Edinburgh
ENVIRONMENTAL CAPITAL
233.3 m2 of green space per person (Murphy, 2021).
Half of the city (about 49.2% - about 130 km2) is classified as a
green space (Q360, 2019)
130 public parks and more trees per person than
anywhere in the UK (Q360, 2019)
Royal Botanic Garden, is home to more than 13,500 plant species and
about 1,133 animal species (Edinburgh, RBG, 2022).
Source: BBC News, 2017
Famous environmental sights
Royal
Botanic
Garden
Edinburgh
The Water
of Leith
Calton Hill
Edinburgh
Zoo
Princes
Street
Gardens
Arthur's
Seat
Etc.

19.

Number of flora and fauna species & Urban green areas
What must be done in order to
achieve
circular
model
of development of environment
Tourist operators and managers
must attract tourists to alternative
and natural sights of Edinburgh
and advertise the idea of
sustainable and responsible
travel to the city's natural sights.
Pollution of the
environment and the
generation of large
amounts of waste
Main issues
Biodiversity loss and
habitat fragmentation
Climate changeassociated affects
The
development
and
construction in green areas of the
city must be minimised or even
banned.
City authorities must stimulate
delivering of carbon-neutral
buildings and introduce a
mandatory quota for green
spaces that must come in addition
to any building.

20.

Waste reduction: recycling rates
Percentage of recycled household waste in 4 major Scottish
cities in 2018 and 2020, averaged over three years
Recycling rate in the UK by country between 2010 and 2020
Source: The City Council of Edinburgh, 2021.
The amount of recycled waste in households
in 4 major Scottish cities
Source: Moore, 2022
Source: The City Council of Edinburgh, 2021.

21.

Waste reduction: recycling rates
Recommendations:
Recyclable
products
used by the providers
of tourism services.
Main Challenges
Recycling rates fell
by 2.9% compared
to pre-pandemic
2019 in 2020
(Bradley, 2021).
Ineffective waste
management
system compares
to other UK
countries.
Free
training
for
effective
waste
management.
The higher taxation on
one-use products
Short-stay tourist
visitors flood the
city, putting
additional pressure
on the city's
recycling system.
Agitation of residents
and enterprises to take
part
in
recycling
initiatives.
Tax
exemption
for
recycling
initiatives/sustainable
item use.

22.

Creation of specialized training/
education centres for tourism pr
ofessionals.
Creation of organizations/clubs f
or community involvement in th
e management of tourism in the
city.
Have a stronger control on devel
opment projects and revise polic
ies regarding development as w
ell as city layout.
Introduce a requirement for all
buildings and conversions to me
et the zero carbon/platinum sta
ndards as set out in the current
Scottish Building regulations.
Develop an app to encourage pe
ople to use other types of trans
portation around the city, along
with the development of a new
policy that assesses new develo
pment against its ability to meet
targets for public transport usag
e, walking and cycling.
Create synergy with towns in th
e Lothians area to increase dwel
l time in these areas.
Application of the Audience Cen
trality Index to pinpoint areas of
improvement in terms of visitor
needs and motivations.
Create cultural trails through the
use of thematic interpretation.

23.

The insufficiency of preceding research works dedicated to the topic.
The deficiency of available data and inconsistent reports throughout the
years
Time limitations and secondary data usage that put question on
practicality of research
Comprehensive research into each indicator concerning the capitals of
Edinburgh
A study based on the applications of recommendations provided in this
report