Crucial week ahead for Manchester’s business tourism industry

Visit Manchester is gearing-up for the most important three days in its business tourism calendar next month (1 - 3 March).

Throughout the course of 72-hours, the tourist board will exhibit at the UK's leading conference industry event, International Confex, host their annual destination showcase, Manchester Live, publish the latest issue of its Conference Guide and completely redefine its business tourism online presence with the launch of www.visitmanchester.com/conference.

Visit Manchester is joined at International Confex by Manchester Central and eight other venues from across the city. At Manchester Live they take with them a 36-strong contingent of hotels, venues and service providers as they look to secure future conference business for the city. This event is in association with MediaCo.

Paul Simpson, managing director of Visit Manchester, said: "The city's strength lies not only in its product, but in its partnership approach. Collectively, the organisations attending International Confex and Manchester Live are responsible for significant proportion of the £573m that business tourism contributes to the city-region economy each year."

In re-launching its conference website as www.visitmanchester.com/conference, they bring the city's business tourism online presence in sync with that of its leisure tourism site - which re-launched in May 2010 and has seen a year on year increase in traffic and now accounts for 50% of all traffic to North West tourism websites.

Commenting on the website, Paul Simpson added: "The functionality of the new website is easy to use and doesn't rely on gimmicks. It allows time-poor event organisers to gain an understanding of what Manchester has to offer in a short amount of time. This includes general information about what there is to see and do in the city - which we know to be important when choosing a location for a conference or event."

The Manchester Conference Guide is the city's long-standing reference for event organisers looking to hold an event in the city. Manchester is the first city in the UK to ensure that all of the venues in its guide have been assessed by Accredited in Meetings - the industry quality assurance scheme.