After Covid, Edinburgh should think about turning hotels into affordable housing – Helen Martin

Edinburgh’s tourism business should not return to its previous levels, writes Helen Martin.

The Royal Mile is packed during Festival season (Picture: Ian Georgeson)

FOR those who work in, for, or in support of tourism, I have sympathy. Some firms, not just local but international, will collapse as Covid 19 is slamming the door on major resorts and cities around the world.

It may recover eventually, but I doubt to the level it enjoyed anywhere before coronavirus struck.

As it was a major industry in Edinburgh, I have to admit I despair at tourism body bosses hoping to hasten it back urgently. And as we know, there are now official studies of the serious and damaging impacts on cities such as Barcelona and Edinburgh.

Tourism requires not just restoration, but a complete re-think to make it sustainable in future in some way that doesn’t anger and damage the lives of locals.

Our Festival and Fringe was simply too big. Airbnb accommodation in residential tenements was distressing and intolerable. The Christmas Market devastated Princes Street Gardens. The tacky machines, constructions, painted signs, board blocks, and lights were hideous. But worst of all was the number of around 4.25 to 4.5 million tourists choking this small city centre.

I’d want tourism to come back with some controls and moderations. A ban on Airbnb, a vast reduction of the Festival and Fringe and the Christmas season, traditional rather than Disney decoration and atmosphere, tourists forced to accept and respect local rules and customs rather than locals having to tolerate theirs, a high tourism tax, a ban on building of any more hotels and possibly even a conversion of some existing ones to create affordable housing.

The industry flared out of hand with no limitations by the council. I hope the study of over-tourism comes up with some solutions.