Conference Leeds, the super convention bureau for Leeds and West Yorkshire are quietly celebrating after 9 of their members were nominated for awards in the forthcoming Yorkshire Insider Business Tourism Awards taking place the 12th march at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

This is the inaugural year for the awards which have been launched in recognition of Yorkshire’s business tourism industry which has flourished in recent years due to a host of new facilities and the massive growth in hotel stock across the Leeds area.

The business tourism industry currently represents 23 per cent of the region's gross domestic tourism and 29 per cent of inbound tourism but until now, the hospitality sector has not had a platform from which to celebrate and promote its services and successes to its main target market, the region's business and corporate community.

There are seven award categories:

Large venue of the year
Small venue of the year
Unique venue of the year
Best business hotel
Best corporate hospitality
Personality of the year
Team of the year

Conference Leeds members have been nominated in all 7 of the categories and the Conference Leeds team themselves have been nominated in the category of “Team of the Year”.

The nominations are as follows:

Large Venue of the Year - Saviles at the Royal Armouries
Small Venue of the Year - Weetwood Hall, The Great Victoria Hotel Bradford
Unique Venue of the Year - Sno!Zone, National Coal Mining Museum, The Royal Armouries
Best Business Hotel - Thorpe Park Hotel and Spa, Radisson SAS Hotel Leeds
Best Corporate Hospitality - XSEM
Personality of the Year - Jim Vincent, Royal Armouries
Team of the Year - Conference Leeds, Savilles Audio-Visual, National Coal Mining Museum, Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa

Nicola Lockwood, head of Conference Leeds said:

“We are delighted to have so many of our members nominated for awards, although to be honest I am not in the least surprised. We have a growing number of excellent venues for events from large city style modern venues to small intimate luxury hotels with friendly enthusiastic staff running them! I am looking forward to the Awards Ceremony it promises to be a glittering occasion that will really put business tourism in the spotlight.”

Conference Leeds is supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency. Andy Tordoff, Head of Rural Renaissance and Tourism for Yorkshire Forward said:

“ These Awards are a testament to the importance of business tourism to the Yorkshire regional economy, we are delighted to be supporting them.”

ENDS

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.

Press release issued by
Sue Crawley
Fire Circle Ltd
T: 01642 714999
E: sue@fire-circle.co.uk