Scotland’s two largest cities are still among the top five for tourists with record numbers of overseas visitors, according to new statistics.
Edinburgh remained second and Glasgow fifth in the list of most popular UK cities for visitors, published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
The number of international visitors to Edinburgh grew by 15 per cent to more than 1.3 million in 2006, while Glasgow had 741,000 visitors last year - an increase of 8 per cent.
The figures demonstrate an ongoing growth in international visitors, said tourism body VisitScotland as it launched the 2007 push in its award-winning European Cities campaign.
The promotion, now in its third year in this successful format, publicises Edinburgh and Glasgow as city break destinations across Scotland's key European markets in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Spain and Italy.
The campaign takes advantage of the increase in direct flights from Europe and the trend towards visitors taking more short breaks.
Last year marked the first time in the ONS statistics that Edinburgh passed the one million overseas visitors mark.
In 2007, the £700,000 campaign will focus on events and festivals, with Halloween and the mystery and magic of Edinburgh, the capital's Winter Festivals and Fiddle 2007 all being used to attract more European visitors into Edinburgh.
Three Glasgow-based festivals: Glasgow's Hogmanay; Celtic Connections; and Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art will also be central to the promotion campaign.
VisitScotland said the events and festivals theme of the campaign demonstrates just how much is happening in Scotland at this time of year, and aims to drive further growth in visits by attracting more people during the offpeak season.
Denise Hill, VisitScotland's head of international marketing, said: "Edinburgh and Glasgow are growing in reputation as short-break destinations, and by highlighting the rich variety of things to see and do year-round in the cities, combined with an increase in direct access to Scotland from Europe, we can ensure both cities are a 'must do' for European visitors.
"Our award-winning European Cities campaign has been a huge success in previous years.
"We can see that this campaign, together with our other international marketing activities, is having an impact with continued strong growth in international visitors to Edinburgh and Glasgow."
Jenny Dawe, Edinburgh City Council leader, said: "These figures are very encouraging and further demonstrate that the tourist industry is going from strength to strength."
Jean Cameron, producer of Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art , said: "We are delighted to be involved in the new campaign, which sends a clear message Glasgow will be the place to be this April."
Aberdeen featured in the top 20 for the first time in recent years and Inverness moved up to 15th place from 16th the previous year. Both cities are part of VisitScotland's annual European Touring Campaign, which runs each spring.
The European Cities campaign, taking place from September to December, will be supported by VisitScotland's international cities websites, in six languages, and will include online advertising, press advertorials, direct mail shots and an e-mail campaign.
This will help promote the six events, together with six consecutive competitions to win a city break to Edinburgh or Glasgow. Video adverts for Edinburgh and Glasgow have also been created for the first time, and will initially be used in online banner adverts.
