The Edinburgh

What The Edinburgh does

Forever Edinburgh is the City of Edinburgh Council's official destination marketing service, operating edinburgh.org as the authoritative visitor platform for Edinburgh, Scotland's capital and a UNESCO World Heritage city. The service promotes Edinburgh's tourism, culture, events, and business sectors to domestic and international leisure visitors, Edinburgh residents, university students, corporate event planners, and travel trade intermediaries. Core operational surface is the edinburgh.org website, complemented by active social media presences on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, X, and TikTok, an email newsletter, and a Media Centre supplying free editorial assets.

The product portfolio centers on the Forever Edinburgh Website, which delivers curated content across Inspire, Things to Do, Food & Drink, What's On, Neighbourhoods, Accommodation, and Planning sections. Supporting products include the Stay Different three-year destination marketing campaign (2025-2028), the Resident Rewards loyalty programme for EH-postcode residents, City Passes for bundled attraction access, the My Itinerary interactive planning tool, dedicated B2B surfaces for Business Events and Travel Trade, and a LinkedIn Business Spotlight series launched in 2024 to profile local tourism businesses such as Signature Group, Fingal Hotel, Craigies Farm, Lost Shore Surf Resort, The Scotch Whisky Experience, and Edinburgh Gin Distillery. The platform is built on a WCAG 2.1 accessibility foundation providing keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, screen magnification, and voice command support. Website design, build, and the My Whereverly business-listing back-end are provided by long-term technology partner Whereverly.

Forever Edinburgh is a non-commercial government service with no consumer pricing and no direct transactions. The City of Edinburgh Council is the primary ongoing funder, while the UK Government, through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, specifically finances the Stay Different campaign. Business registration on edinburgh.org is free, City Passes are sold through standard attraction-ticketing rather than a Forever Edinburgh storefront, and integrated campaign delivery is outsourced to a core agency stack consisting of BIG Partnership (marketing communications), Union Media (media planning), and Spirit Media. There is no founder/management team, headcount figure, or balance-sheet detail disclosed in the input; the organization operates with 11-50 staff at Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh.

Name

The Edinburgh

Legal name

City of Edinburgh Council

Website

https://edinburgh.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Forever Edinburgh is the City of Edinburgh Council's official destination marketing service, operating edinburgh.org to promote Edinburgh as a tourism destination. It serves visitors, residents, students, and travel trade clients through content, planning tools, and government-funded campaigns.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Destination Marketing Services

NAICS

Travel Agencies (561510)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Destination Weddings & Social Groups (Non-Corporate Groups) (THAHADAL)

Keywords

• Destination marketing
• City tourism promotion
• Visitor information services
• Event marketing campaigns
• City guides content

Headquarters

HQ city

Burwick

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Government Funding: Funded by the City of Edinburgh Council as the city's official destination marketing service. The Stay Different campaign is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Forever Edinburgh operates the official destination marketing website (edinburgh.org) for the City of Edinburgh, providing visitors with comprehensive information on attractions, events, accommodation, food and drink, neighbourhoods, and travel planning. The organization runs destination marketing campaigns (Stay Different 2025-2028), operates the Resident Rewards loyalty programme for EH postcode residents, sells City Passes for bundled attraction access, and provides B2B services for corporate event planners and travel trade professionals.

Product overview

Forever Edinburgh is the City of Edinburgh Council's destination marketing service operating a comprehensive tourism website and multiple marketing campaigns. The core product is the Forever Edinburgh Website (edinburgh.org), a unified destination marketing platform offering visitor planning tools, event discovery, accommodation booking pathways, and neighbourhood guides. Supporting products include the Stay Different Campaign (a three-year marketing programme running 2025-2028), the Resident Rewards loyalty programme for EH postcode residents, City Passes for bundled attraction access, the My Itinerary trip planning tool, Edinburgh City Guides, and dedicated B2B services for Business Events and Travel Trade professionals. The Media Centre provides press resources for media partners. Together, these products serve visitors, residents, and industry professionals with tools for trip planning, loyalty benefits, and Edinburgh promotion.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Stay Different: A three-year programme designed to inspire longer, more meaningful stays in Edinburgh, supporting the city's 2030 Tourism Strategy and promoting sustainable, year-round tourism.
• Resident Rewards

Products and services

• Forever Edinburgh Website The official destination marketing website for Edinburgh providing comprehensive information about attractions, events, accommodation, food and drink, neighbourhoods, and travel planning for visitors and residents.
• Stay Different Campaign A three-year destination marketing campaign (2025-2028) designed to inspire longer, more meaningful stays in Edinburgh by highlighting diverse experiences across the city's neighbourhoods and promoting sustainable, year-round tourism.
• Resident Rewards A loyalty programme for Edinburgh residents with EH postcodes offering exclusive benefits, discounts, and special access to local attractions, tours, and experiences.
• City Passes Combined ticket packages offering discounted access to multiple Edinburgh attractions, providing visitors with savings on entry fees across the city's top sites.
• My Itinerary An interactive trip planning tool allowing visitors to save and organize attractions, events, and experiences to build a personalized Edinburgh itinerary.
• Business Events Platform A dedicated section for corporate and meeting planners offering information about Edinburgh as a business events destination, including venues and MICE facilities.
• Travel Trade Portal A dedicated section for travel trade professionals including tour operators and travel agents, providing resources and information for selling Edinburgh to their clients.
• Media Centre A library of high-quality images and press materials available for media and marketing use, showcasing Edinburgh's attractions and events.

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BIG PartnershipcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025Marketing communications agency partnership for integrated campaign delivery of the Stay Different campaign, including digital content, out-of-home, video on demand, and radio advertising.
• Union MediacoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025Media agency partnership for the Stay Different campaign delivering integrated marketing communications across multiple channels.
• Spirit MediacoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025Media partner for the Stay Different campaign providing integrated campaign delivery services.
• Signature GroupminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal hospitality business featuring over 20 bars, restaurants, hotels and luxury apartments, with its own brewery Cold Town Beer, featured in Business Spotlight series.
• WhereverlycoreTechnology or IntegrationWebsite design and development partner. Also provides business listing platform (My Whereverly) for local businesses to register on edinburgh.org.
• Edinburgh Festival Fringe SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to promote Edinburgh's largest festival event featuring 3,649 shows across 258 venues.
• Edinburgh International FestivalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to promote the world's leading performing arts festival featuring 147 performances from artists across 46 countries.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Amsterdam Marketing: Amsterdam's city-level destination marketing organisation, a peer in European heritage-city destination promotion with comparable emphasis on dispersing visitors beyond the historic core and managing overtourism.
• Tourism Toronto (Destination Toronto): Toronto's official destination marketing organisation, directly comparable as a city-level DMO combining visitor information, MICE/business events sales, content marketing, and festival promotion.
• NYC & Company: New York City's official destination marketing organisation — a comparable major-city DMO model running integrated multi-channel campaigns, CityPASS partnerships, and neighbourhood-level content to disperse visitors across the city year-round.
• Visit Wales: Wales's national tourism organisation, a UK regional DMO peer with similar public-sector funding model and comparable remit to promote regional attractions, events, and dispersal from larger gateway cities.
• VisitScotland: Scotland's national tourism organisation, the closest functional peer to Forever Edinburgh — both are government-aligned DMOs promoting Scotland's tourism economy to domestic and international visitors with year-round campaigns and regional/neighbourhood-level storytelling.
• Destination DC: Washington DC's official destination marketing organisation, comparable as a city-DMO with a multi-channel content platform, neighbourhood guides, and event-driven campaigns targeting domestic and international leisure and business events demand.
• Visit Dublin: Dublin's official city DMO (Fáilte Ireland-aligned), a comparable capital-city destination marketing body promoting cultural events, neighbourhood experiences, and MICE business across domestic and international markets.
• Visit Copenhagen: Copenhagen's official tourism organisation — a comparable Northern European capital-city DMO with similar sustainability, neighbourhood, and event-led positioning, and a similar mix of consumer-facing website plus B2B travel trade services.
• VisitBritain: The British Tourist Authority, the UK national DMO — a direct peer to Forever Edinburgh as a publicly funded destination marketing body driving inbound tourism promotion, working alongside regional DMOs such as Forever Edinburgh within the same UK visitor economy.

Regional players

• Visit Flanders: Flanders' regional tourism organisation — a comparable publicly funded European DMO, but focused on a wider regional geography rather than a single city, making it a regional-scale peer rather than a direct city competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/edinburgh
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/thisisedinburgh
• Facebookfacebook.com/Edinburgh
• Instagraminstagram.com/thisisedinburgh
• TikToktiktok.com/@visit_edinburgh
• Pinterestpinterest.co.uk/Forever_Edinburgh
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-edinburgh

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Edinburgh