economic impact of waterfront/marina redevelopment in Scotland (incl. attendance at the Falkirk Wheel)

from yesterday's Scotsman newsfeed --

Ribbon of renaissance which links east and west
SHÂN ROSS (sross@scotsman.com)

"NOT so very long ago, a walk along much of what was left of the canal network linking Edinburgh and Glasgow was a pitiful experience. Supermarket trolleys and old mattresses lay dumped in the murky water, overgrown tow paths were a haunt for vandals and wildlife was disappearing.

Now, thanks to a remarkable transformation that has taken place in less than a decade, the entire 68-mile stretch is undergoing a renaissance.

There is a buzz about the place: the previously rundown canal area of Edinburgh's Fountainbridge now has trendy restaurant barges and is referred to as "Little Venice"; couples are getting married on the Falkirk Wheel and holiday cruisers are sailing the canals, mooring at custom-built marinas along the way.

The latest figures on the £84.5 million Millennium Link - which reconnected the Union Canal in the east and the Forth and Clyde Canal in the west - back up the "feel-good" factor.

New research reveals that the largest canal restoration project in Europe has helped attract more than £178 million of investment across the Central Belt and brought 4,000 much-needed jobs to the area in the past five years.

More than 1,000 homes have been built along the canals and 93,000 square metres of commercial floorspace have been created since the ambitious "Peoples' Project" began in 1999.

The figures - in a report compiled by the independent economic consultant Roger Tym & Partners - are ahead of the original forecasts, which predicted £100 million of investment and the creation of 3,420 jobs by this stage.

Projections also show the restoration of the canals has the potential to generate £1.5 billion of investment and more than 12,500 jobs by 2015." ....

for the complete story see:
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1549512007



A refresher on the Falkirk Wheel and its impact-- also from the Scotsman
21 Feb 2007

Healthy turnover at Falkirk Wheel as visits rise faster than any other UK attraction
STEPHEN MCGINTY

"THE Falkirk Wheel has enjoyed the largest rise in visitors of any British tourist attraction, figures released yesterday show.

The wheel, which transfers boats between the Union canal and the Forth and Clyde canal, showed a rise of 48 per cent, a larger percentage increase than Kensington Palace in London, which enjoyed the second largest percentage rise, a boost of 45 per cent.

The Scottish attraction last year welcomed 437,388 visitors, up from 296,000 in 2005. Visitors to the Falkirk Wheel were drawn by a combination of the warm weather last year and enterprising attractions such as the Winter Wonderland, created in the run up to Christmas.

The figures, published by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, show that Edinburgh Castle remained the most popular site in Scotland with 1,213,907 visitors, a rise of two per cent on 2005." ...

"The largest drop in visitor numbers was recorded by the National Museum of Flight, where attendance dropped by 31 per cent. However, a spokesman for the museum said: "At the National Museum of Flight attendance has simply levelled off following the peak year of visits after the opening of The Concorde Experience in 2005."

The most popular visitor attraction in Britain remained Blackpool pleasure beach, with 5,730,000 visitors, while the least popular was the National Museum of Costume, based at Shabellie House in Dumfriesshire, which recorded a drop of 18 per cent to 10,717 visitors."

for complete story see:
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=541&id=277272007