Airport and tourism lift the gloom
THE monthly Manchester economic monitor has highlighted the resilence of the city region in a number of key areas, notably international tourism.
The New Economy agency us expecting further international visitor numbers this summer as a result of the 2012 Olympics football games being held at Old Trafford and basketball warm-up games at the Manchester arena.
The latest International Passenger survey indicating a 100,000 increase in overseas visitors to the region between April 2011 and April 2012, now at 1.1million.
The two most popular attractions this year were the Lowry Art Gallery and the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI).
New Economy estimates the Olympics sport events will boost Greater Manchester’s economy by around £30m.
In addition to this, Manchester Airport’s passenger numbers are up by 100,000 annually, with the latest figures from February 2012 at 1.18million.
Despite such positives, there are obvious challenges in other areas of the economy – the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) in has surged 15.3% over the past year – representing over 11,600 new claimants.
The Greater Manchester housing market. is also having a tough time with the average house in the region valued at £106,000, compared to the figure of £160,000 at a national level.
Baron Frankal, director of economic strategy at New Economy, said: “The UK is in a period, and likely a prolonged period, of stagnation, that robust overall growth will be hard to break out of, and sustainable growth even more so.
“Greater Manchester needs to be ahead of the game in recognising that ‘one more heave’ won’t do it, but taking more pain now for more gain later will make our recovery stronger.
“We need to concentrate more on the areas we’re good at. Greater Manchester has a robust economic strategy, and the ideas on the table, like those in the Growth Plan, to bolster and accelerate it, are good ones that the politics needs to make happen if we are not to bump along the bottom with the rest of most of the country outside London & the South East.”
