Edinburgh relies on the creative industries. For a month a year, the city is home to all sorts of weird and wonderful productions from all over the world during its iconic Festival and accompanying Fringe. It’s not surprising that the city’s Lib Dem MP is a massive supporter of the creative industries. Christine Jardine has written for the Scotsman about the damage Brexit stands to do to evens like the Festival.
She outlines the threat to the creative industries:
UK Music has warned that touring and live events will be at risk because of the potential loss of technical talent from the EU. And all events will lose a valuable stream of talent from the EU. Talent which is its life blood.
But it’s not just the impact on culture. It will have an impact on the tourism it supports. Tourism is worth around £127 billion a year to the UK. That’s about 9 per cent of GDP. Across the UK, it supports approximately 3.1 million jobs. It incorporates about quarter of a million small and medium-sized enterprises. Its growth is on a par with the digital sector we hear so much about.
In Edinburgh alone, almost two million international visitors spend around £822m every year in addition to two million domestic visitors who spend £641m. So it’s clear if tourist numbers fall, many areas of Scotland, including my own in Edinburgh will suffer badly… and jobs in every area of the country will be under threat. And while the link to the hospitality and tourist industry might be clear, there is an obvious impact too for tourist attractions. It will also reach far into other sectors of the economy, affecting jobs in fashion design, video games, television, theatre, furniture design and radio.
You can read the whole article, which includes suggestions of potential solutions, here.
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