The North of England has struggled in the shadow of London but has set out to show that it can sparkle when the occasion demands. The region’s cities have tapped into £1m (US$1.37m) of the UK government’s £10m Northern Tourism Growth Fund and one resulting project was to bring 12 international meeting planners on a fam trip immediately following IMEX Frankfurt.
A four-day itinerary across the North of England, stopping at Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle gave the planners a closer look at the MICE offer as they met key stakeholders from venues, hotels and associations.
The group looked in at ACC Liverpool, which claims to have brought £1bn in economic benefit in the last eight years. The complex also showed off its new£66m exhibition centre and hotel.
The Sage on the river Tyne, which can accommodate 1,700 delegates, was also in focus, while Manchester Central, housed in a former railway terminus, showcased why it pulls in half a million visitors a year and £75m into the economy.
Major transport infrastructure projects planned for the North include £60m to develop plans for a high speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds and a£161m upgrade to the M62 motorway. New franchise operators will provide trains costing more than £800m.
Nick Brooks-Sykes, director of tourism at Marketing Manchester, said: “By inviting key planners and association executives from around the world, we can demonstrate Manchester’s world-class convention infrastructure, our international accessibility and compact city centre. Last year Manchester attracted 5m delegates, who brought £823m into the economy. Our ambition is to grow this to £1.2bn by 2020.”
This year Manchester is the European City of Science 2016 and hosts the Euroscience Open Forum in July 2016, the largest general-science symposium in Europe. In all, 30 national and international scientific associations hold their events in Manchester this summer.Major events include the International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry and the Biennial Conference of the European Association for Cancer Research.
Paul Szomoru, head of business tourism at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said the visit, alongside a year-long programme promoting the region, had been a huge success.
And Leeds, which hosted 54,200 events and approaching 4m delegates last year bringing in business worth almost £500m to the local economy, showed the visitors its Royal Armouries, The Queens hotel and three university campuses, as well as out of town venue options including Oulton Hall, Thorpe Park and Weetwood Hall. The city boasts 2,100 four-star hotel rooms and the universities a further 6,690.
The visitors had little knowledge of the North of England prior to the trip.
Kate Currie, at Marketing Liverpool, said: “Although the fam attendees were in Liverpool for only a short period of time, we hope that their visit gave them a taste of our legendary welcome. We wanted to showcase how flexible Liverpool is as a conference destination and were pleased that some of the attendees took us up on a late night trip to the Cavern Club where they got to experience Liverpool’s legendary nightlife and downtime offer.”
Jerry Vaughn, president CEALS – Meetings and Incentive Programs, said: “I enjoyed the fam, definitely one of the better ones I have been on. I went on this with some general perceptions of the areas we visited but very little factual information to make judgements on. I thought each city had a lot to offer and for the right group, I wouldn’t hesitate to put them in any of the cities we visited.
“Liverpool was very impressive and fun and combining the ‘Beatles’ dimension to it gave me a lot of ideas to use with groups. The Titanic Hotel was top notch.
“I also loved the character of Newcastle. The architecture and setting is really special. This fam provided me with the knowledge and appropriate perspective to market and recommend it to our clients.”
