23/09/2009

York's conference and event venues will be promoted this week at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre - one of the most important exhibitions in the UK for the conference and events industry.  A part of National Meetings Week, Event UK 2009 brings together three hundred exhibitors, including destinations, venues and event service suppliers, all hoping to increase their share of the lucrative conference and meetings market.

Working in partnership with Welcome to Yorkshire, Visit York will be exhibiting alongside Area Tourism Partnerships; Visit Hull and East Yorkshire, Yorkshire South Tourism, Yorkshire Dales and Harrogate, West Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Moors and Coast. 

Kate McMullen, Marketing Manager for Visit York said, ‘Event bookings are big business, generating thousands of pounds worth of revenue for York's business tourism sector.  York is in the perfect location to organize a meeting and with so many fantastic venues, both modern and historic, we believe we have the wining combination to increase our share of this important tourism sector.'

The latest tourism figures show that business related events generated an estimated £132.4 million of direct value to event venues in York in 2007. Approximately 70% of this was from residential events and 30% was from non-residential events, emphasising the importance of residential business. This was an increase of 25% on the previous year.  There were an estimated 1.3m delegates attending events in York - generating approximately 1.8m delegate days (an increase of 1.6m delegate days in 2006). 

Event UK attracts organisers of meetings, conferences, exhibitions, experiential marketing, product launches, awards & charity events from across the UK - all looking for new and different ideas to make their conferences and meetings a success. 

The event attracts:

• 4,000 organisers and marketers of a wide variety of events
• 30% of visitors in 2008 had a budget of over £200,000 per event
• 73% of visitors had buying approval or recommendation authority
• 50% of visitors organise more than ten events per years
• 64% of visitors were managers with staff

Visit York will be ensuring that York has a strong presence at Event UK to network with new and existing conference buyers and to update buyers on what's new in the city.  Staff will be keen to promote the Hospitium, following its refurbishment alongside some new additions to the conference York venue range including Carlton Towers and the new five star hotel Cedar Court, opening next year.  York Museums Trust, the R&B Group (event production specialists) and Lakeside Conference Centre (located at Sand Hutton) will also be promoting with Visit York.

Visit York is offering conference and event organisers complimentary VIP York passes when they visit the stand at E301.  ENDS