An independent report, carried out by Team Tourism as part of the UK Events Market Trends Survey, has found that Sheffield City Region's conference market was worth £282m in 2012.
The report, which was commissioned by Marketing Sheffield, calculated visitor spend across business events in the region and showed a £56m increase from the £226m calculated for 2011. 69 per cent of the venues consulted said business was up and more than half of them expected business to improve again in 2013, the most positive response for four years. The report also revealed corporate sector business accounted for more than half of conference events.Director of Marketing Sheffield, Brendan Moffett, commented: "These results are highly encouraging for the Sheffield City Region and really demonstrate the growing significance of the corporate sector. Business Tourism is vitally important here; it brings significant influential audiences to the city region which are hugely important in terms of economic impact but also as prime targets for inward investment.
"The research also reinforced our strategy to focus on association business with initiatives such as the Ambassador Programme."
Ian Slater, Chair of consortium Hospitality Sheffield, adds: “This report underlines the huge contribution that business tourism makes to Sheffield City Region’s economy and reminds us again that money spent on tourism infrastructure, standards and product delivers a powerful return on investment.”
Sheffield will host the 2013 Westfield Health British Transplant Games, this week. Six hundred athletes and supporters, led by the England football band, will parade through Sheffield city centre on 15 August to kick off the Games. They will march from Devonshire Green to Sheffield City Hall, which is hosting the opening ceremony of the Games for more than 1,500 participants, spectators and special guests.
The four-day event is expected to generate £1.5m for the local economy, and aims to raise awareness of the value of organ donation, and increase the numbers in the NHS Organ Donor Register. The Games will feature almost 20 sporting competitions including archery, swimming and obstacle courses.
