A recent Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Foundation report claimed business tourism is worth £1.9bn to the Scottish Economy. On the country’s east coast, a sum equal to half of that total is to be ploughed into Dundee and Angus over the next 15-20 years.
While Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen lead the way North of the Border in securing conference business and in the ICCA rankings, Dundee has big plans to join the premier conference league.
The investment includes £1bn into the 240-hectare wateont and part of the plan is to attract an additional three million visitors to the city and boost business tourist spending by £1bn by 2025. Half of the sum has been secured thanks to City Council, Scottish Enterprise and European Regional Development funding.
The city is also taking its plans to investors via a series of roadshows in the coming months.
Mike Galloway, Director of City Development at Dundee City Council, says a dramatic growth in business and leisure tourism is creating demand for new accommodation and a wide range of supplementary services. He estimates the city needs another 500 bed spaces. A new Malmaison has already opened and Georgian mansion, Customs House, is to be renovated.
The £1.5m demolition of the ‘Arndale-like’ Dundee station structure and creation of a £14m five-story building in its place, complete with 130-room hotel, is planned by 2015.
A new futuristic £45m venue, the V&A Dundee (artist’s impression above), is rising on the banks of the Tay. It will have 1,500sqm of flexible gallery space as well as areas for meetings and events.
Dundee and Angus Convention Bureau reports conferences and events held in the area last year generated £55m for the economy, a figure up four per cent on 2011.
The bureau hopes the planned investments will boost the quarter of a million-plus delegates from the UK and abroad that currently attend conferences in the city and surrounding area.
A new citywide business tourism strategy targeted for the long term rests on fostering better coordination between the convention bureau, venues and related businesses. If realised, the bureau believes 700 additional full time jobs could be created.
Karen Tocher, Business Tourism Manager at Dundee and Angus Convention Bureau, says: “Building a successful meetings sector will create jobs and income for the destination. To make the most of the benefits that this can bring, it’s essential that new venues and facilities are developed within the area.”
Tocher says the strategy includes supporting the universities and research establishments, including through an enhanced Ambassador Programme.
For all the fanfare of investment, the bureau is still lobbying for a purpose built conference facility, which local experts believe should be designed to hold 1,000 delegates and offer flexible meeting space. Such a project is, however, not part of the new infrastructure blueprints.
Although around 300 delegates attend each conference in Dundee and Angus, with several venues in the area able to cater for such numbers, Tocher believes more can be achieved. She says a 1,000-seater facility would allow Dundee to tap in to the additional 23 per cent of the total global market which the city cannot regularly cater for with its current facilities.
“Some of the most successful conference cities across the world have a shared vision between venues, hotels and public agencies,” Tocher says, citing Glasgow, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Vienna, Boston and Singapore as successful examples of destinations with clear objectives.
Meanwhile, conferences booked in to Dundee up to 2015 include the International Conference on Photodynamic Applications and the International Society of Addiction Medicine conference, each expected to attract 400 international delegates, worth over £800k to the area.
Conferences within the fields of medicine, education and archaeology are also due over the next two years, attracting between 50-350 delegates each.
This was first published in the November issue of CN. Any comments? Email conferencenews@mashmedia.net
