Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson said that he believes Edinburgh "deserves" a new quality hotel as he celebrated the arrival of one of his own.

The entrepreneur was in the capital host a formal ceremony with Edinburgh City Council and Jansons Property developers.

The event, held in the India buildings on Tuesday, was to mark the official launch construction of the property.

Sir Richard attended alongside Virgin Hotels CEO Raul Leal and Jansons managing director Andy Jansons.

Speaking about bringing the hotel to Edinburgh Branson said: "I don't think that Edinburgh has really a lot of quality 5 star hotels, it does have a lot of hotels but not really a lot of good quality hotels.

"You have fantastic quality hotels throughout Scotland and outside Edinburgh but in the city it is more mass market, so I think Edinburgh deserves this hotel.

"We hope it will bring a lot of fun and class and welcome in local people to come and use it as well as people from overseas.

"And I think just the style that Virgin brings to everything that we do, we will bring to this beautiful historic building."

Virgin opened their first hotel in Chicago in 2015 and in the three years since it has already established itself among the world's best.

Sir Richard continued: "We opened a hotel in Chicago a couple of years ago, it was in a sense our experimental first Virgin hotel anywhere in the world.

"It has won every single award there is including Conde Nast best hotel in America award and I think it has done it by having absolutely delightful staff who work in the building which is half the battle.

The Virgin Hotel in Edinburgh, which is is due to open in 2020, will feature 225 Chambers and Grand Chamber Suites; multiple dining and drinking outlets, including the brand's flagship space, Commons Club, as well as numerous meeting spaces.

Virgin Hotels San Francisco is due to open in 2018 with locations in Nashville, Dallas, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, New York, Silicon Valley, Palm Springs, Las Vegas and others set to follow.