Edinburgh has been named in the top ten "hot spots" for hotel developments across the UK.

The top three cities identified by global real estate company Colliers International are Cardiff, Manchester and Leeds, with Edinburgh in eighth place.

The commercial estate agent analysed locations by land value, room occupancy rates and construction costs to give a score from one to five for hotel development or acquisition opportunities.

In terms of room occupancy rates, both Edinburgh and Glasgow are rated in the top ten by Colliers.

Cardiff came out on top due to low build costs and strong hotel performance over the last three years - boosted by hosting some rugby world cup matches in 2015.

Marc Finney, head of hotels and resorts consulting at Colliers International, said: "High land prices in London are causing investors to look outside of the capital for opportunities to spend their cash.

"As such, we are increasingly being asked by our hotel investor and operator clients which UK regional cities offer the best development opportunities.

"Together with our regional experts, who know the local UK markets exceptionally well, our hotel market index gives us something more than anecdotal evidence through which to advise our clients.

"With the index, we are able to couple our on-the-ground expertise with a more scientific formula to demonstrate the key performance indicators which should be influencing an investor's decision-making process and rank the opportunities according to their own investment criteria."

Scotland-based Alistair Letham, a director in the UK hotels agency team at Colliers, said: "In terms of supply, Edinburgh has the third-most rooms of all of the cities reviewed behind only London and Manchester, with Glasgow in a close fifth place.

"The future outlook is also positive, with both cities expected to increase their total supply by just over 8% during the next three years."