Conferences boost Birmingham image, claims study
Jan 28 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post
High-profile Conservative and Labour conferences helped boost Birmingham’s image in the rest of the country, a new study has claimed.
The city is increasingly seen as a major centre for business and tourism, according to a report into the performance of Marketing Birmingham.
Publicity flowing from Labour’s spring conference and the Conservative main conference, both held at the International Convention Centre, contributed to a record £18.2 million-worth of national and international media coverage about Birmingham.
The figure is the amount the council would have had to pay in advertising fees to guarantee the same amount of coverage.
Marketing Birmingham, the organisation responsible for promoting the city at home and abroad, received an upbeat report for 2007-08.
Only three out of 16 performance targets were not met, while seven were judged excellent.
The number of visitors to Birmingham increased by five per cent, to 32 million, while the number of people using information centres was up by 41 per cent to 605,000.
Birmingham is in sight of overtaking Manchester as the best city outside of London in which to conduct business.
The gap between the two narrowed significantly last year, from 13 per cent to six per cent.
On the down-side, a target to improve the perception of Birmingham as a visitor centre was not met.
The city improved from seventh to sixth place, behind Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool, Glasgow and Cardiff, against a target of second place.
There was “significant under-performance” in the amount of money Marketing Birmingham makes from its commercial activities.
The organisation was set a target of £4.6 million, but raised only £3.6 million.
However, Marketing Birmingham managed to extract £3.4 million from public sector organisations against a target of £1.5 million.
Council regeneration director Clive Dutton said Birmingham would have to attract “even more high profile events and conferences”.
Talks are believed to be underway to bring the Liberal Democrat conference to the ICC within the next few years.
Mr Dutton said “good news stories” about Birmingham in the media contributed to increased visitor numbers, bringing £4.4 billion in spending power to the city economy.
