Liverpool City Region: ACC targets international market
LIVERPOOL’S arena and convention centre is targeting winning more international business as it continues to boost the regional economy by more than £100m a year.
ACC Liverpool – which comprises the Echo Arena and convention centre – is soon to be expanded with a new integrated hotel, an investment which chief executive Bob Prattey feels will boost bookings further.
The waterfront arena and convention centre is celebrating a record turnover for 2012-13.
Click here to download our 28-page supplement on the Liverpool City Region economy , in association with Baker Tilly, Hill Dickinson, The North West Fund and Santander.
Mr Prattey says that although accounts have yet to be finalised, he is confident they will show the last financial year, to the end of March 2013, to be its most successful year to date with record turnover and an uplift in profits.
“We have low churn rates and lots of repeat business on the association side. But we are also now seeing a return in corporate sales to the levels of two or three years ago, which is welcome. Businesses like Asda, Audi and Hyundai are booking with us,” he says
In 2012, ACC hosted 179 event days at the conference centre with 77,000 delegates. The arena side of the business has held its own – in 2012 it held 84 separate events, with 507,000 visitors.
Mr Prattey says the aim is to keep that momentum going with a big focus on attracting business from the international market. To this end he has recruited a new international sales manager in the last couple of months.
“We have earned our spurs in the UK market,” he says.
It has already hosted some notable international conferences too: the TEFL international conference this April hosted 2,600 delegates from 109 countries and in June 2012 it had the Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics conference, with 900 delegates from 57 countries.
ACC also hosted a BBC showcase event for the second year running in February, where the delegates were all international buyers of TV programmes.
The ACC’s economic impact on the city already has a running rate of about £100m a year – £625m since it opened in 2006 – and Mr Prattey hopes that opening up to an international clientele can ramp that figure up even further.
“That’s real spend in restaurants, bars that wouldn’t have happened if events hadn’t come to Liverpool,” he says.
He hopes the ACC’s new on site four star, 200-bed hotel – due for completion in 2015 – will also help to draw the international convention crowd.
French hotels group Accor will lend its business-oriented Pullman brand to the new hotel at the yet-to-be-built exhibition centre in Liverpool.
“Corporate clients say they want four star recognised on site. The Hilton has been doing that for us as it is only 300-yards away but this hotel will be physically linked to all the halls. It’s a proven model for a successful conference centre and gives us a major advantage,” he says.
“This is an advantage to all the hotels as it will help us to win more conferences and they will benefit from the overspill.”
The 110,000 sq ft building will be part of a £40m waterfront complex which will have a new 90,000 sq ft of exhibition space connected to the existing arena and convention centre by a covered bridge link.
