THE biggest-ever Edinburgh Festival Fringe will inject more than £140 million into the economy as the capital's annual cultural festival becomes a key component in driving economic growth in Scotland, it was claimed last night. 

The world's biggest annual arts festival opened yesterday, with more shows than ever before across about 300 venues, and looks about to sell more tickets in Glasgow than Olympics football has achieved. 

The Fringe, the official festival's mammoth offshoot, is now bigger than ever, with a 6% rise in its programme of comedy, drama, theatre, music, and dance bringing 2695 shows to 279 venues. 

Economic impact surveys show the festivals generate more than £250m worth of additional revenue for Scotland, with the Fringe contributing £142m.

Last night, Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland, said: "Working together we can all sell Scotland to the world and the Fringe and the Edinburgh festivals provide a tremendous opportunity to position not just Edinburgh but the whole of the country on a world stage in front of a global audience. 

"The impact of visitors coming to Scotland to enjoy the Fringe, or indeed staycationers dipping into the Fringe or Festival experiences on their doorstep, has huge potential, not just for tourism but the entire visitor economy." 

VisitScotland has been using a Surprise Yourself marketing campaign in tandem with the festivals to showcase Edinburgh to the south-east of England, particularly during the Olympics period. 

So far, no "Olympics effect" is being felt at the Fringe, a spokesman said, with ticket sales reportedly steady or up on last year by several percentage points, and visitors to the Fringe able to watch the Games on large-screen TVs in major venues. 

He added: "Research shows the combined impact of the festivals is around £260m for Scotland and so it's easy to see what a key driver they are for economic growth." 

Last year, the Fringe sold a record 1,877,119 tickets, up 2.57% on 2010.  This year it launched a push into the west of Scotland, with a box office at Queen Street station in Glasgow. 

An estimated 22,457 performers will take to the stage from August 3 to 27, including Jimmy Carr, Phil Jupitus and Paul Merton. 

Overall, the Fringe features 42,096 performances, with comedy taking the biggest proportion of the programme. 

The capital is hoping to cash in on the festival period by introducing a new initiative that will see its high-street shops open later, with 120 shops already involved. 

This means Edinburgh will be "alive after five", with retailers extending their daily opening hours until 7pm, Monday to Friday. 

The campaign has been introduced by Marketing Edinburgh, Essential Edinburgh and City of Edinburgh Council, and will also offer free city-centre parking from 5pm from August 6 onwards over the festival season. 

Tickets this year went on sale for the Fringe earlier than usual to attract audiences from the London Olympics, and the Fringe also invested in marketing in the UK capital, including on the Underground.  The spokesman for the festival said: "We changed our marketing in London to get people to come to Edinburgh.  So we started selling tickets for quite a few venues in January. 

"It's quite exciting to have the world's greatest sporting event taking place in London and the world's greatest cultural event in Edinburgh." 

London 2012 has, naturally, inspired a few shows, such as Club Noir Burlesque – The Games and Al Murray, The Pub Landlord: The Guv's Olympic Pub Quiz.