Tourism and Festivals

As host to the world's biggest arts festival, Edinburgh is a key player in this sector.

Tourism in Scotland, especially in Edinburgh, is a huge and rapidly growing industry. With this come a whole host of opportunities and challenges that the DDI programme is aiming to tackle.

These include:

• How can we manage the flow of tourists throughout the city without impinging on the lives of city residents?
• How can we turn Edinburgh into a hub for multinational tourism tech companies?
• How can Scotland's tourism boards use data more affectively?

Sector Lead for Tourism and Festivals, Joshua Ryan-Saha, discusses these challenges further, while also highlighting the excitement and success of the sector:

How to get involved

Employers

Edinburgh is home to a number of data-led companies that operate in this sector. Examples include:

• Skyscanner - occupies a significant place within travel and has put Edinburgh on the map when it comes to this sector
• Smaller companies like Travel Nest and Foresight are also contributing fresh ideas and data-skills

For those wanting to get involved in festivals and tourism in a tech or data-based role, these companies and others like them are worth investigating.

Search for other Touism and Festival employers on MyCareerHub.

Skills

These employers will value a strong background in data and quantitative methods. 

If you're simply hoping to get involved in tourism and festivals in a way that's not specificially related to data, then your options are broad. Customer-facing experience and 'softer' skills will be highly valued here.

Have a look at Prospect's overview of the Leisure, Sports and Tourism sectors.