 The meetings and events industry is worth a huge £562 million pounds a year to the Leeds economy according to the latest independent research. During 2009 the research surveyed over 100 venues in Leeds and estimated that the city attracts over 4 million delegates per year worth £562 million to the economy.
The figures come from the 'Yorkshire Business Tourism Research' report, carried out by Yorkshire Forward, which forms part of the annual UK Events Markets Trends Survey (UKEMTS) research, a nationally recognised industry benchmark.
The research shows a big growth in business visitors to the region – in West Yorkshire the total expenditure by delegates amounted to £777 million from 5.79 million delegates; accounting for 56% of all business visits to Yorkshire and including £77 million to the Bradford economy.
Nicola Lockwood, Head of Conference Leeds the super-convention bureau for Leeds and West Yorkshire said: 'We are delighted with these figures. We have had a busy year, despite the recession and 2009 is shaping up to be our busiest year ever.'
She added: 'There has been a huge growth in hotels and meeting venues in the city over the last 5 years and these figures show why Leeds is now ranked in the top 5 meeting destinations in the UK.'
Conference Leeds is supported by Welcome to Yorkshire, chief executive Gary Verity says, 'These fantastic figures show that the hard work of the Conference Leeds team has paid off. There can be no doubt about how important business tourism is to the city of Leeds in terms of sustaining and creating jobs.'
Contact
Telephone: 0113 220 6356
Email: nicola.lockwood@conference-leeds.com
Website: www.conference-leeds.com
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