In Focus - Not just visiting
Figures just released by Marketing Birmingham show that the city’s visitor numbers were up to 32.6 million in 2009, a 400,000 increase on the year before.
We can often be sniffy about such statistics, dismissing visitors as people who see a show, eat at a local restaurant and then head home without having a major impact on the regional economy.
But hotels, restaurants and theatres are a key part of the local business scene and news that visitors are spending more time - and thus money - in the city is good news for everybody.
There was an overall increase in accommodation expenditure from £156m in 2008 to £168m during 2009 which probably explains why four more hotels are in the pipeline for 2010/2011.
Marketing Birmingham chairman Paul Kehoe - who also happens to be chief executive of Birmingham International Airport - has long argued that more needs to be done to get people into the city. As he put it to me when I interviewed him: “The Cadbury’s loving, Shakespeare-reading resident of Boise, Idaho, needs to fly into Birmingham, not London.”
The success in putting on big scale conferences and conventions - such as attracting more than 20,000 rotarians to Birmingham - can also have an impact. If they like what they see, they may return with their family for a subsequent visit. And the hope is that when they return to work, often as decision-makers, they may see the city as a good place in which to do business in the future.
The key is getting everybody to work together - businesses, entertainment and conference venues, restaurants, marketing bodies – for the good of the city. In the past, restaurants have complained that they have seen little benefit from big conferences at the ICC because nobody has bothered to do a guide to local eateries for delegates. Things have got better, but there is still a long way to go.
Nottingham has made the most of its Robin Hood city status but Birmingham was negligent in not milking the Tolkien link when the Lord of the Rings film cycle was out.
But that’s in the past. What needs to happen now is for everyone involved in marketing the city - and that means all of us, not just Marketing Birmingham - to get behind the place and to promote its attractions as a venue for business and tourism. And that starts with not seeing business and tourism as being distinct. It all amounts to money coming into the city and at the moment that’s all that matters.
Recent Posts
Services
Dealmakers Services Directory
Directory Find an advisor to help you buy, sell or invest
Property Services Directory
Find an advisor across property services
Commercial Property Finder
Full commercial property listings in the Midlands
Guides
Midlands City View
The news, features and analysis that matter for your city
International Trade
Our guide provides expert analysis on a range of trade destinations
42 under 42 Members
The latest class of the Midlands brightest young business people
- Contact us
- Midlands
- North West
- South West
- Wales
- Yorkshire
- Other regions
- 0121 232 0980
- 0161 907 9711
- 0117 906 5900
- 02920 434500
- 0113 220 4410
- 0161 907 9718
- Insider regions
- Central & East
- Ireland
- Midlands
- North East
- North West
- South East
- South West
- Wales
- Yorkshire