VisitScotland has revealed that last year Edinburgh welcomed more than a million international tourists to the city for the first time since the terrorism attacks of September 11 and the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2001.

According to the International Passenger Survey (IPS), which ranks destinations based on the number of trips made by overseas visitors, 1.34 million foreign tourists visited the Scottish capital in 2005 compared with only 940,000 in the previous year.

Edinburgh retained its position as the second most popular UK city for foreign visitors, with London taking first place.

Glasgow also enjoyed an increased number of international tourists, with 684,000 visits in 2005 compared with 540,000 in 2004, placing the city in fifth place.

The IPS is a survey of a random sample of passengers entering and leaving the UK by air, sea or the Channel Tunnel. More than 250,000 face-to-face interviews are carried out each year to provide data on tourism to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as well as national tourist boards. Details: www.visitscotland.com