Tourists flocking to Dundee pumped more than £155 million into the city’s economy last year, according to latest figures.
Visitor numbers increased by 3.8% on the previous year and industry researchers are expecting that number to continue to grow, as the city’s exciting developments continue to go up.
The average daily spend of each visitor to the city worked out at just under £83, also an increase on 2015’s figure.
Visitors spent on average 3.5 nights in Dundee and there were a total of 836,150 tourism visits in the city area last year.
City development convener Councillor Lynne Short said there was a positive picture emerging of continued growth in tourism in Dundee, which will be exacerbated with the opening of the V&A next year.
She said: “Tourism is one of the strands that we are pulling together to grow the economy in Dundee and these increases are the result of a considerable amount of work put in by the council, Scottish Enterprise, Visit Scotland and the tourism industry in developing the Dundee Tourism Strategy in 2015.
“As well as the obvious benefits for people who are in front-line tourism businesses like hotels, guest houses, B&Bs and visitor attractions, the sector has also created and sustained jobs in the construction industry, building, refitting and refurbishing hotels and the other facilities that we need and not just at the Waterfront but across the wider city.”
She added: “It is clear that we already have the museums, galleries, shops, places of interest, restaurants, bars and culture that people from across the UK and beyond want to spend time in.
“What we are seeing is a really positive picture emerging of revenue and visitor numbers growing that we plan to use as a launch pad for the tourism offering here to really fly in the next few years.
“For example next year will see the opening of the V&A, and more hotel accommodation currently under construction, will come on stream, but that’s not the whole story.
“Preparations are already in place to support people with the skills they’ll need to be able to meet the demand for trained individuals in the sector so that Dundee is well and truly open for tourism.”
Figures, compiled by Global Tourism Solutions, also showed tourism directly supported more than 2,500 full time jobs.