Edinburgh and Glasgow are maintaining a buoyant attitude towards their tourism sector - particularly in the potential of city breaks and the meetings and conference sector - despite a lacklustre performance for Scotland`s tourist arrivals as a whole.

Although full 2002 results will not be available for some time, signs for Scotland`s tourism industry as a whole are not particularly promising. In the first six months of 2002, overseas visitors to Scotland were down by 2 per cent on the same period last year. In the domestic sector, figures for the first eight months of 2002 reveal a better performance - visitors from elsewhere in the UK to Scotland rose by 10 per cent compared with the same period in 2001 when tourism was affected by the foot and mouth outbreak. However, if Scotland follows the general pattern for domestic trips throughout the UK, the second half of 2002 will be worse than the first. Figures from the UK Tourism Survey, which monitors domestic tourism, show declines in volume and in expenditure in the months of July, August, September and October.

Nonetheless, Edinburgh is the most visited city in the UK after London, in terms of overseas visitors, and Glasgow ranks fifth. Edinburgh attracted over 3 million domestic visitors in 2001 and 850,000 international visitors, while Glasgow had fewer overseas visits - around 400,000 in 2001 - but its domestic count of 2.7 million was not far behind that of Edinburgh.

The USA is the main overseas market by far for both cities, but in the current climate both are increasingly looking to Europe and to the domestic market for short-break trips. They are being helped by the growing number of direct low-cost services from a variety of European and UK destinations and by the declining strength of sterling against European currencies. The largest European market for both cities is Germany. Italy, France, Scandinavia and the Netherlands are also important in varying degrees in each city, but it is the domestic short break market that is currently proving most successful.

Glasgow has developed a strong relationship with the Northern Ireland market, which accounted for 37 per cent of all tourism spend in the city in 2001. The Glasgow tourism authorities, working with carriers Stena Line and Ryanair, helped boost trips from Northern Ireland by 73 per cent during 2001. This year, marketing campaigns focusing on spring and summer short breaks and good value travel and accommodation offers, are expected to keep the momentum going. A joint promotion with Ryanair, which flies into Prestwick International, is targeting the markets in Norway and the Republic of Ireland offering attractive fares and focusing on Glasgow`s extensive shopping opportunities.

Edinburgh`s tourism authorities are making particular efforts to spread visits more evenly throughout the year - at present there is a bottleneck during the many festivals held in July and August (particularly the International Festival and the Fringe Festival), and the New Year Hogmanay celebrations. This year the city will host its first Easter Parade as part of a four-day festival, with 4,000 performers due to take part. A festival for amateur golfers, and the Festival of Tall Ships are also planned for 2003.

Another relative weakness in terms of attracting short-break business has been the city`s shopping facilities, but these are improving, led by the opening of a branch of upmarket London store Harvey Nichols - although the adjacent shopping mall, targeting new designer boutiques, is not yet fully leased out. A special Monet exhibition (which will not be shown in London) will coincide with the reopening of the Royal Scottish Academy, and is also expected to attract additional visitors from home and abroad this year.

In Glasgow several events in 2003 are being used to attract more visitors - the World Bowl X1 at Hampden Park in June, the Glasgow Art Fair, and two special exhibitions, Treasures of Kelingrove and Whistler 2003 at the Hunterian Art Gallery.

Leisure visits dominate in both cities, but business visitors are increasingly being viewed as important. Over half the UK trips to Glasgow are for holidays - 57 per cent in 2001 and 47 per cent of overseas visits - while 19 per cent of UK visitors are on business and 21 per cent of overseas visitors. In Edinburgh, 60 per cent of UK visitors and 66 per cent of overseas visitors are on holiday, while 22 per cent of UK visitors are on business, compared with just 12 per cent of overseas visitors.

Conferences are a continuing priority in Glasgow in particular, although new facilities in Edinburgh will also allowed the city to compete for larger events. Figures from the Union of International Association in Brussels show Glasgow to be Europe`s fastest-growing conference destination, having doubled its market share of international meetings since 1997. The Glasgow & Clyde Valley Tourist Board says that the city`s conference sales increased substantially in 2002 - to