Travel Trade update

ATTRACTIONS

Top Free Attractions
There is plenty to see and do in Edinburgh, and some attractions are FREE to enter!
Including the Museum of Childhood, The Museum of Edinburgh and The City Art Centre.
Please visit our Top Free Attractions page for more information.
www.edinburgh.org/top_free_attractions

St James Quarter
Proposals for the £850 million redevelopment of the ‘St James Quarter’ have been approved. This is the start of a development process that will provide a mix of uses in the heart of the city centre. The focus will be on the provision of additional retail floorspace and the creation of high quality public spaces. The centrepiece of the scheme will be a crescent-shaped retail "galleria", while other key elements will include two hotels, bars, restaurants, a major public square and an 1,800-space underground car park.

National Museum of Scotland
National Museums Scotland are undertaking a £46million transformation of the Royal Museum building, part of the National Museum of Scotland. They plan to open up a whole new floor at street level maintaining the grand Main Hall in all its glory, doubling the number of objects on display, renewing half the galleries and creating a new learning centre. While all this work goes ahead more than half of the National Museum of Scotland will stay open with a packed programme of events and activities. A computer-generated 'fly-through' and artist impression on the following link offers a sneak preview of what the revamped museum will look like from 2011.
National Museum of Scotland website

Edinburgh World Heritage
Edinburgh World Heritage is launching themed House Histories - highlighting the stories of people who lived in historic buildings in Edinburgh. The House Histories trail focuses on six buildings which together form a journey from the Old Town through to the New Town and Dean Village. The trails will be supported by podcasts available on
www.ewht.org.uk
Edinburgh World Heritage manage the following events coming up in the Edinburgh calendar:

Literary Edinburgh Podcasts
Edinburgh World Heritage and the City of Literature Trust are pleased to announce the launch of the Stories in Stone project.
Podcast journeys through the literature and landscape of Edinburgh are now live on www.visitscotland.com/guide/inspirational/galleries/edin_lothians/.
Meet the authors, poets and storytellers whose words breathed life into the city, and explore the historic architecture of the medieval Old Town and Georgian New Town.


ACCOMMODATION

Hotels in the pipeline:
- Caltongate Development - On hold. Plans were to include a proposed new five-star 205-room Sofitel Hotel.
- Haymarket / The InterContinental Hotels Group - have signed a deal with Tiger Developments to build a 17-storey 192-room InterContinental hotel in Edinburgh, due to open in 2013. This new hotel will form part of Tiger Developments' proposal to regenerate the Haymarket area, creating offices, restaurants and shops.
- A new 103-bedroom hotel, including a bar and restaurant looking towards Edinburgh Castle, could be the next hotel development planned for Princes Street (at 121-123 Princes Street). Discussions still taking place on whether this project will move forward.