A NEW air link between Doha and Edinburgh is predicted to bring in £33 million to the Scottish economy in its first year.

The Qatar Airways route launches on May 28 and is expected to be used by a mix of leisure and business travellers.

Research conducted by VisitScotland also suggested the benefit to Scotland after the flights had been running for three years would be around £86 million.

Other direct routes between Edinburgh and Glasgow starting this month include links to the likes of Philadelphia, Chicago, Zurich and Verona.

A delegation from VisitScotland is in Frankfurt this week at the IMEX business tourism trade show. They are looking to build on last year when there were 22 enquiries with a potential economic impact of £14 million.

Neil Brownlee, head of business tourism, said there would be around 9,000 buyers at the event.