Hatrick for Leeds

Leeds has been named in the top five meetings destinations in the UK for the 3rd year running. The British Meetings and Events Industry Survey 2009 (formerly the UK Conference Market Survey 2007) named Leeds as the 5th most popular choice for corporate meetings ahead of strong competition from cities such as Glasgow, Newcastle-Gateshead and Nottingham.

The survey researches the buying habits and preferences of over 600 conference organisers and is widely considered to be the most reliable benchmark in the industry.

The accolade has also been confirmed by this year’s Conference Venues Survey which shows that not only have the number of meetings taking place in Leeds increased but they have got longer too – which is great news for the local economy.

Nicola Lockwood, Head of Conference Leeds, the super-convention bureau for Leeds and West Yorkshire said:

“Once again we are really excited to see Leeds rank so highly, we were quietly optimistic that we would retain our top 5 status as we have had a boom year for enquiries through the convention bureau, so it’s great to see this officially acknowledged”.

The survey follows on the heels of the “European Cities Monitor report 2009”, in which Leeds achieved it best ranking to date, appearing in the top 25 European cities for business competitiveness. The report is published by global commercial property consultants Cushman and Wakefield.

Yorkshire’s regional capital has improved its ranking against eight of the survey’s 12 key indicators; based on interviews with senior executives from 500 of Europe’s biggest companies it looks at the range of factors considered by companies when deciding where to locate their business operations. Key factors are cost and availability of qualified staff, access to markets, transport and climate governments create.

Nicola Lockwood added:

“our reputation has continued to grow as our venues have expanded this year – with new venues such as the 330 bedroomed City Inn and superb conference venues such as Saviles Hall at the Royal Armouries, we now have the bed stock and venue capacity to host large scale events.

Its superb to see that we are punching well above our weight appearing above the likes of Newcastle-Gateshead and running closely behind major international destinations such as Edinburgh and Manchester”.

Conference Leeds is supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency.

EDITORS NOTES:

Nicola Lockwood is available for interview on 0113 220 6356,
email: nicola.lockwood@conference-leeds.com

About Conference Leeds

Conference Leeds is the organisation responsible for promoting meetings and events across Leeds and West Yorkshire. The recently restructured Conference Leeds is now a “super convention bureau” representing almost 250 venues across the area.

Conference Leeds is a Leeds City Council organisation with funding from Yorkshire Forward, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale Councils.

Conference Leeds can offer a free venue finding service for anyone wanting to host an event in Leeds and West Yorkshire and markets the area through a series of initiatives.

Business tourism is worth over £450million a year in direct expenditure to the Yorkshire economy

About Yorkshire Forward

Conference Leeds is supported by Yorkshire Forward. Yorkshire Forward is the regional development agency for Yorkshire and the Humber, it exists to represent and help generate sustainable business for the region’s tourism industry, an industry worth £4.1billion to the region annually and employing over 165,000 people, making it one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the region. Yorkshire’s goal, as identified in Bold Vision, Bright Future – The Tourism Marketing Strategy for Yorkshire and Humber 2006 – 2010, is to achieve and increase in the value of tourism earnings to the region by 5% per annum to £5.9bn by 2010.

Further details can be obtained from:
Nicky Lockwood
Conference Leeds
T: 0113 220 6356
E: nicola.lockwood@conference-leeds.com