One of the busiest years on record for business tourism in Sheffield has boosted the city’s economy by more than £12m.
New research carried out by Sheffield International Venues (SIV) shows the economic benefit of events hosted across its portfolio of 14 facilities in the city in the last financial year equates to £12.7m.
The figures are based on 890 events, which brought in 151,439 business tourists to Sheffield, and calculated according to an industry average of expenditure by different customer types.
SIV operates one of the biggest concentrations of diverse international events venues in Europe including Ponds Forge Sheffield, City Hall Sheffield and Don Valley Stadium Sheffield.
Events including The Re:inventing The City Economic Summit, The International Documentary Festival Bash and The NHS Yorkshire and Humber Health & Social Care Awards, as well as events for clients ranging from the BBC to LG Communications and VisitBritain, at Sheffield City Hall generated almost £7m.
The impact of business events such as The Sheffield Chamber of Commerce’s Business Awards, Irwin Mitchell’s Annual Ball and various events throughout the year from The London College of Music at Ponds Forge Sheffield equates to £3.6m.
Don Valley Stadium Sheffield and the English Institute of Sport – Sheffield (EIS Sheffield) hosted events which generated £2.3m, while iceSheffield, Hillsborough Leisure Centre and Concord Sports Centre brought in a combined £400k.
Dominic Stokes, general manager of SIV Conferencing and Events and City Hall Sheffield, said: “One of SIV’s key objectives is to maximise economic impact for the city and these figures show that as a business tourism destination we are right up there with traditional destinations such as London and Birmingham.
“In Sheffield, our offer is totally unique and we can compete with the big traditional cities by offering organisers a quality service at an affordable choice to destinations like Manchester or Dublin.
Each year, SIV hosts more than 2,000 events for anything from 10-50,000 people across 20,000 m² of conference, meeting and exhibition space.
Dominic added: “There are no boundaries to our event planning and provision. SIV’s outstanding and varied venues are located across the city providing one of the widest choices of event space in the UK. Our flexible approach delivers superior conferences and events, which are only limited by the customer’s imagination.”
SIV will be showcasing its venues and services at two of the country's best meeting industry events this month - Event UK at Birmingham's NEC on September 22-23, and The Venues and Events show in London's Old Billingsgate on September 23-24.
For more information about holding your next event in Sheffield call 0870 121 3690.
