Conference Leeds, the super convention bureau for Leeds and West Yorkshire is celebrating after 4 of its partners scooped awards in the Yorkshire Insider Business Tourism Awards which took place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on the 19th March.

Conference Leeds partners who won awards include:

Eureka! National Children’s Museum – Unique Venue of the Year
Radisson SAS Leeds – Best Business Hotel of the Year
Leeds United Football Club – Team of the Year
Nicola Lockwood Head of Conference Leeds – Personality of the Year

In addition the Awards gave two venues a highly commended recommendation, both of whom were Conference Leeds members:

Speedmaster Conferences – New Venue of the Year
Thorpe Park Hotel and Spa – Small Venue of the Year

This is the second year for the awards which were 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.

Michael Taylor, editor of Yorkshire Business Insider had high praise for all the winners, saying:

“These awards are a very important benchmark for the quality of the hospitality and business tourism sector. They are a serious showcase for the efforts of teams grafting hard to provide the very best facilities and service for Yorkshire businesses and for people coming into Yorkshire to do business.

What the judges have found this year has been a step up in the active pursuit of quality that has given teams across Yorkshire the confidence to compete against the very best”.

Nicola Lockwood, head of Conference Leeds said:

“Yet again this was an amazing achievement celebrating all the fantastic venues that Leeds and West Yorkshire have to offer. The fact that we won 4 awards and received 2 highly commended recommendations sends a strong message to conference buyers across the UK that Leeds and West Yorkshire provide a perfect back drop for conferences, meetings and events of all sizes!

We know that we are competitive on rates, but these Awards prove that we offer outstanding quality too, it’s easy to see why Leeds is now ranked as one of the UK’s top 5 business visitor destinations.”

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

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, responsible for marketing the West Yorkshire districts of Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale.

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 the Awards
This is the second year for the awards which have been launched in recognition of Yorkshire’s business tourism industry. 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.

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.