The economic impact of the Six Nations rugby tournament in Scotland this year is expected to top the £52 million previously generated by the event, tourism agency VisitScotland has said.
Scotland will host its first fixture of the championship at Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh on Saturday when the team takes on England.
It will also host a home game against France on Sunday March 13.
Both matches are expected to see thousands of travelling home and away fans flock to the capital.
A 2014 report by sponsor RBS found that in a typical season, visitors to Edinburgh for the matches generated £52 million of revenue for Scotland's economy, £30 million of which was for Edinburgh's economy.
The RBS research showed £35 million (£24 million in Edinburgh) of this comes from spending by visitors who attend the matches and their family and friends who accompany them.
Around £17 million (£6 million in Edinburgh) comes from spending on hotels, restaurants and bars.
Even higher impact figures are expected this year, with Scottish Rugby selling out Murrayfield in record time for both games.
Malcolm Roughead, VisitScotland's chief executive, said: "The RBS Six Nations games always create an exciting and friendly atmosphere in Edinburgh and across Scotland.
"These world-class sporting events provide more than just entertainment, they represent a multi-million pound tourism opportunity which delivers economic, cultural and social benefits."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel