GLASGOW music festivals including TRNSMT and Summer Sessions helped generate £431million for the Scottish economy last year and supported 4,300 jobs, new figures reveal.

Scotland saw the strongest growth of music tourism in the UK, rising from 800,000 visitors in 2017 to 1.1 million in 2018, a jump of 38%.

Only London, the South East and North West of England actually brought more visitors to the country.

New festivals such as Summer Sessions, which is held in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, were credited with helping to attract growing numbers north of the border.

Visitors spent £431 million in Scotland on tickets, merchandise, drinks, food and accommodation, as well as indirect spending, such as costs created by organisers in running events.

Glasgow Times:

The statistics were released in a report by UK Music, an umbrella organisation for the industry.

The total contribution to the UK economy from the music industry was £5.2 billion, with 190,935 jobs credited, the report revealed.

A spokesperson for UK Music said: “Although Glastonbury Festival did not take place in 2018 when the data for the report was collected, the rise in the number of other festivals across the UK, particularly in Scotland, such as TRNSMT and Sunday Sessions, boosted the numbers.

Glasgow has launched a number of new music festivals in recent years including the Summer Nights festival at Kelvingrove Bandstand, which has hosted artists including Tom Jones, Burt Bacharach and the Pixies.

TRNSMT has replaced T in the Park as the main pop and rock music festival in Scotland with last year’s line-up featuring Stormzy, Gerry Cinnamon, Catfish & the Bottlemen, Bastille and George Ezra.

Fiona Shepherd of Glasgow Music Tours, said: “It’s very encouraging to read these healthy figures on music tourism, but it only confirms what we already know at Glasgow Music City Tours - that following live music is a great excuse to travel and sample other cities, countries and cultures.

Glasgow Times:

“Only last week, we guided a visitor from Australia who had come to the UK specifically to check out a host of different bands playing across the country - she clocked up eleven gigs in ten locations in fourteen days.”

But the report warned that there is an “urgent need” for more investment and said Brexit could have an impact on the UK’s touring artists.