China in our hands – new direct flight will be a big boost to Capital economy
John Donnelly is excited about the prospects for the air link between Beijing and Edinburgh
ext week Hainan Airlines launch the long-awaited direct flight between Beijing and Edinburgh Airport – China’s only direct route to Scotland, bringing with it vast economic impact for the Capital and beyond.
The new route is the result of many years of hard work on the Edinburghchina Air Link project. We collaborated on this with our colleagues at Edinburgh Airport and the City of Edinburgh Council, after identifying the huge potential of the Chinese market – Chinese visitors to Scotland increased by just over 300 per cent from 2010-2016, and 82 per cent of those visitors come to Edinburgh, contributing a phenomenal £25 million to our local economy.
That first flight landing in Edinburgh on 12 June is cause for celebration. The most obvious benefit is that more visitors means more people spending money in Edinburgh’s shops, restaurants, attractions and hotels. The impact of Chinese visitors is well recognised by the business community – independent jewellery retailer Laings Edinburgh was the lead sponsor of the Edinburgh-china Air Link project, with other partners including the Edinburgh Hotels Association also backing the successful venture.
The new Beijing flight is only one part of a much bigger picture. By the end of the year, we can expect at least 22 new air services to have launched in Edinburgh. At the start of last month, a daily Emirates flight to Dubai was announced, connecting the Capital with the world’s busiest airport, an important hub which will attract more visitors from the Middle East and from Asia, Australia or other connecting airport. Visitors who may previously have arrived from Dubai through other routes can now come directly to Edinburgh, and they’ll stop to enjoy the city.
Global flight connectivity on this scale is imperative to reinforcing the Capital’s position as an outstanding place to visit, live, work, study and invest – and beyond those welldeserved headlines on visitor spend, each new flight path triggers a ripple effect of good news and promotion of the city.
A new direct flight puts Edinburgh on a platform. It’s in an airline’s, and indeed the corresponding city’s, best interest to promote it, meaning the Capital will be showcased as a destination to their international customer network, in everything from in-flight magazines, to highway billboards.
The travel trade will also see it as an opportunity to create new tourism products featuring the city – package holidays will feature us prominently, tours to Scotland will start and end here. Using the Beijing path as an example, approximately half of Chinese visitors book through a travel agent, demonstrating that packaged travel products are enormously influential.
Then there’s the content visitors themselves create while they are here. Edinburgh is one of the world’s most beautiful cities, and our stunning scenery and world class attractions feature heavily on Instagram, blogs and review sites, creating word-of-mouth recommendations – active content delivering marketing campaigns on our behalf.
All of this increased visibility spurs increased demand for more flights. When a Beijing route launched in Birmingham in 2014 it was operating on three direct flights, bringing in just over 7,400 visitors. Just one year later there were 17 flights and more than 22,000 visitors coming in to the city. Edinburgh has a starting capacity to bring in 29,000 visitors, so we are operating off a higher base. With Visit Britain reporting that every 22 additional Chinese visitors that Britain attracts supports an additional job in tourism in the UK, that’s potentially thousands of new positions for the city.
In addition, Edinburgh businesses can expect immediate savings as a result of a direct air link. Without the need to connect in London or elsewhere, stopover costs are removed entirely, and it’s possible to reduce the costs of business trips by as much as a third. For import/export goods, a direct flight can buy fresh produce as much as an extra 2-3 days shelf life in the market.
Air connectivity is important for passing trade too. Businesses that previously wouldn’t consider Edinburgh might choose the city for a conference, meeting or a film location.
For example, given our city’s impressive links to America, and a new Washington DC route just launched, there is ample opportunity for the film industry to follow in the footsteps of movies like Avengflight
ers: Infinity War and T2 Trainspotting, both of which used Edinburgh as a location.
Ultimately, a new direct flight into Edinburgh is a massive vote of confidence. Airlines don’t make these decisions lightly; planning can run to several years, with solid research to back it up. As part of the team that delivered the Edinburgh-china Air Link project, my colleagues and I at Marketing Edinburgh are extremely proud to share Edinburgh’s many accolades with any airline considering a route here, and to rally the business community to draw them in. A new air link confirms to the world what we already know – that Edinburgh is thriving and any business done here is a sound investment. John Donnelly, chief executive, Marketing Edinburgh.