A new £13 million hotel is planned for Heriot-Watt University in a bid to attract major conferences. The 200-room facility for the Edinburgh Conference Centre (ECC) at the Riccarton campus is being planned to boost business tourism in the Capital.
The ECC is currently only venue able to host large-scale conferences during holidays, when student dormitories can be used as accommodation for delegates. The purpose-built, three-star hotel would mean the ECC could host events for up to 600 guests throughout the year, rivalling the larger Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
ECC general manager Thomas Day said the project could double the centre’s £3m turnover when completed – possibly by 2012.
Latest figures from the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) show that the Capital has slipped to 27th in the rankings for the number of international conferences held – overtaken by cities such as Prague and Kuala Lumpur.
Edinburgh has been set the goal of increasing its tourism revenues by 63 per cent by 2015, and business tourism currently accounts for £300m of the £1.08 billion spent by visitors to the Capital every year. The ECC, which recently held the Scottish National Party spring conference and a seminar on stem cell research, is the largest non-profit conference venue in the Capital.
