Regional focus
Right: The iconic Balmoral exterior as seen from Prince Street Gardens.
Below: The Balmoral bar offers an escape from the bustling Edinburgh streets.
Previous: Guests can test the local tipples, sampling rare, unusual and peaty whiskies.
outwards when faced with overcrowding in the 16th century, Edinburgh focused upwards, with tall buildings reaching 14 stories and even underground floors built to accommodate immigrants – hence the city’s famous underground city that tourist flock to every year during their visit. This inevitably led to overpopulation, disease and pollution, which saw expansion into the New Town we know and recognise today. Nonetheless, the Scottish capital is a culturally rich and historic site boating visitor attraction from Arthur’s Seat to the National Museum of Scotland.
History and haggis There can be no denying the capital’s claim to the title of centre of culture and history, winning Best City in the World by Time Out’s 2022 Index. Part of this comes down the city’s series of festivals that span the year, drawing countless tourism from across the globe for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – celebrating art and culture – its International Books Festival to Hogmanay Festival, one of Scotland’s most important holidays dedicated to celebrating the new year. Responsible for generating massive tourism and
commerce, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival normally pushes the city’s hotel occupancy to 100% for a period of six weeks each year, with other events such as Hogmanay and the summer season contributing to a year-long average occupancy of 80% for the past decade or so, according to HVS. While the growth rate of Edinburgh has declined
over the past five years in part due to the effects of the pandemic, which saw tourism decline significantly, the city has seen an uptick following the lifting of Covid measures in 2021 with a RevPAR growth of 150% over 2020 with over 60% occupancy. Since then, the city has thankfully seen a return to pre-pandemic levels, with a 60% market wide occupancy and 25% rise in average rate in 2022, marking a 2% increase in real terms. “There is always a demand to come round [to
Edinburgh],” says Andrew McPherson, general manager for The Balmoral. Synonymous with the city’s skyline, there are few hotels that are as integral and as well-known as The Balmoral is to the Scottish capital, and even fewer that really know the city inside and out. “The cultural side of things is phenomenal, and that really does drive an all-round occupancy and also drives a very high demand in the city for hotels.” Traditionally made up of small or independent
luxury brands, the hotel market in the capital saw quicker recovery than most due to this proportion of high-end and luxury offering helping to drive an ADR index of 1.47 compared with 2019, according to a report by Avison. The city is unsurprisingly seeing a lot of investment driven by this hotel demand, with a new W Edinburgh hotel opening up on Prince Street, the Gleneagles Townhouse, the Virgin hotel and the “anticipated opening of Red Carnation on Princes Street early 2024,” explains Stephen Walker, director of sales and marketing at the Balmoral. “As Princes Street transforms from retail centric to more hospitality focused, there are multiple hotel projects in the pipeline. These include the arrival of Ruby Hotels and also the announcement of a new hotel to
16 Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
The Balmoral
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