Are tourists ruining Edinburgh? Residents fear Scottish capital is turning into a theme park

It’s hardly breaking news that Edinburgh receives droves of tourists during festival season. Anyone who has visited the Scottish capital during the Fringe or Hogmanay will have witnessed the Royal Mile in all its bagpipe-blaring, fire-juggling, pedestrian-clogged splendour.

But a new dossier released by the Edinburgh City Council, entitled Managing Our Festival City, reveals the extent of the issues that tourism has brought to the city.

The report states: “Pavement crowding is a very real concern for residents and visitors in the city centre, during the summer (and winter) festival periods. Overcrowding at certain pinch-points can lead to pedestrians stepping onto the road and into bus lanes.”

The dossier cites street furniture licences, high-volume bus stops and crowds around street performers as causes for these pinch-points around the Old and New Town areas, and it mentions Princes Street as a particular area for concern.

Another issue outlined in the report is the rise in noise pollution caused by traffic, open-top bus tours, amplified walking tours and open-air concerts.

A review to develop a socially and environmentally sustainable tourism strategy in the city centre is now underway, and the council has developed a 16-point scorecard system to monitor the most overcrowded parts of the city.

Responding to the report, Manuela Calchin from VisitScotland told Telegraph Travel: “Just like any popular destination, the city does experience busier times, which are readily embraced by our international visitors and contributes to the city’s vibrant atmosphere. Efforts are being made to boost and manage capacity by looking at seasonality and extending the footprint of areas visited.”

However, some heritage bodies are still concerned about the impact of tourism on the local community.

“We welcome many of the recommendations,” Nicholas Hotham from Edinburgh World Heritage told Telegraph Travel. “However, we feel that the needs of Edinburgh’s fragile and vulnerable Old Town are not fully recognised. This is a community which feels under threat and often overlooked, and specific measures will need to be taken to ensure that the heart of the city remains a vibrant and pleasant place to live as well as visit."

Edinburgh local and co-author of the Rough Guide to Scotland Keith Munro said: “During Edinburgh's festival season in August there are certainly some pressure points with regards to overcrowding. This is a minor, yet growing problem but it only affects the summer months. If anything, it's the increase in road traffic that tourism brings that is exacerbating an already severe congestion and pollution problem.”

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When asked what he thinks needs to be done to improve the impact of tourism in Edinburgh, Munro told Telegraph Travel: “Closure of the tartan tat shops would be a good start. They are everywhere and give the unhappy impression that Edinburgh's a theme park rather than a capital city.”

Over the last five years visitor numbers in Edinburgh have increased by half a million, up to 3.85 million – a growth of 18 per cent.

As well as it’s medieval architecture, internationally renowned festivals and Georgian New Town squares, Edinburgh is luring in visitors for its Harry Potter connections. A number of companies now run walking tours around those city sights that are linked (some more dubiously than others) to the boy wizard, although the author of a recent article in Vice entitled “Harry Potter Tourism is Ruining Edinburgh” isn’t so spellbound by the trend.

Despite the swelling tourist numbers and reports of overcrowding in the city centre, Edinburgh’s tourism bodies are working to increase visitor numbers by another third by 2020 – taking the figure to 4.39 million visitors per year. Spearheading the campaign, the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group lists boosting visits between October and March as a priority.

Edinburgh’s tourism industry currently supports around 35,000 jobs and contributes ￡1.5 billion to the city’s economy.