Manchester Central strikes awards gold

MANCHESTER Central has shared top honours for business tourism with Excel London at the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.

In 2012 the facility, formerly known as GMEX, hosted the Labour Party’s annual conference and a host of other conventions and forums.

In total it welcomed more than 500,000 delegates to events last year, including the X-Factor’s live final, which was attended by more than 10,000 people.

Angie Robinson, chief executive of Manchester Central, said: “I am thrilled that Manchester Central has been crowned joint winner of what is one of England’s most prestigious business tourism awards.

“We have had an incredibly successful past year where we have made a massive impact upon business tourism, both regionally and nationally.
    
“2012 saw us attract some wonderful events to Manchester, including the Labour party political conference, the X-Factor final and some major international events. This has helped to generate more than £75m of economic impact for the region.

“We work closely with our fantastic restaurants, hotels and our incredible retail offer, to sell Manchester as a destination.  

“We also launched a successful partnership with local taxi drivers where we are now working together to sell and inform people about our venue.”

James Berresford, chief executive of VisitEngland, said “The quality of the applications we received this year was very high, making the competition for a Gold Award extremely tough.  It is therefore a tremendous achievement for Manchester Central to win a Gold Award, the highest accolade for Excellence in Tourism which VisitEngland can bestow.
 
“Our judges were particularly impressed with the enthusiasm of the staff, from the concierge to venue managers; the team has raised the bar for excellence, and I warmly congratulate them on their success”.