Business Visits & Events Partnership
chairman Michael Hirst says “event tourism is now firmly on the government
agenda”, following support from senior government representatives.
Following official endorsement of the Britain for
Events campaign from Prime Minister David Cameron, Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of
State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, spoke at the opening of World
Travel Market this week on next year’s “World Tourism Summit coming together to
discuss the power of events" and "new ways of looking at event
tourism in the future".
Further to this support and the work of Nick de
Bois MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Events, business
tourism has also been identified as one of the areas that will benefit from
VisitEngland’s successful bid for £19.8m in Regional Growth Fund money,
announced earlier this month.
Hirst said: “It is fitting that these developments
have all taken place in the lead up to, and during one of the UK’s seminal
tourism events and goes to demonstrate the growing role both business and
leisure events play in UK tourism.”