The man in charge of leading Dundee’s £1 billion Waterfront revamp has revealed how the city is more popular than ever with tourists.
Mike Galloway, the director of city development at Dundee City Council, was speaking after it was revealed how there had been a massive spike in tourism over the past year.
Recent figures showed that holiday rentals went up by 274% in just 12 months up to September.
That was the second-highest increase in Scotland.
In an interview discussing the work taking place at the city’s Waterfront, Mr Galloway told how people attending The Open golf championship at St Andrews in July had opted to stay in Dundee, instead of Edinburgh where most had been based during the 2010 staging of the tournament.
He put this down to the increased profile the city is enjoying, adding: “Hotel room rates are growing so the revenue per room is very healthy.
“We are looking to add another 500 rooms over the next few years into the central area of the city.
“But we want to do that in a way where we keep the profitability of existing hotels and potential hotels at that high level.
“So, it is a case of carefully managing the growth of that market and matching it to the growth in leisure and business tourism.”
Mr Galloway also revealed a “catch 22” situation with regards to attracting businesses to occupy the Central Waterfront area, close to where the V&A museum is being built.
He says the city council must try to build some offices first so that potential investors can see the benefits of being based at the Waterfront site — saying it would be “difficult, if not impossible” to get firms to invest speculatively in office developments.
The city is planning to have an extra 500 hotel bedrooms in the city centre area to cope with an expected influx of extra visitors in the coming years.
The Malmaison hotel opened in February last year, and further developments include a Sleeperz hotel at the new Dundee railway station — with 120 bedrooms — and work is also under way on a Hampton by Hilton hotel at the former Argyll House and Waverley House office blocks in West Marketgait.
Alice Bovill, a member of the Leisure and Culture Dundee board, said: “The city has come on leaps and bounds over the past few years and I think in the years to come it will continue to progress.
“There’s a lot of investment going into Dundee, both from businesses such as hotels and in terms of funding for voluntary organisations. People are starting to see the attractions it has to offer.”