This year’s Edinburgh festival season was the busiest ever for us, with customers making 7.8 million journeys on our buses from 6 – 26 August.

The figures, up 1,000,000 on last year, represent an increase of around 350,000 extra customers per week compared to the rest of the year.

This summer, we engaged in a range of initiatives across the capital including a partnership with Festivals Edinburgh, which saw specially trained volunteers act as welcome ambassadors to the city. In addition, a partnership with the Fringe Festival celebrated the 70th anniversary of the popular festival and promoted their ‘Random acts of Fringeness’ show and travel ticket giveaways.

In a first for the UK, we updated our app to give travel information in 11 different languages to assist the large number of international visitors in our City. Fringe locations and shows were also added to our journey planner to make navigation of the festival easier for customers. The upgrades resulted in a 24% increase in mobile app usage across the three weeks of the festivals.

Nigel Serafini, Lothian Commercial Director said:

Tourism is hugely important to Edinburgh’s economy and we’re very proud to have played such a vital role in the festivals yet again. Millions of people rely on us to get around the city safely and efficiently during this busy period.

To carry over 1 million extra customers across the Edinburgh Festival season is testament to the loyalty and dedication of our team. Staff across our business, from our drivers to our engineers, office staff and retail teams, all worked exceptionally hard on the frontline and behind the scenes to keep Edinburgh moving.