Just weeks after it was named as one of the top ten world cities to visit in 2015, Birmingham has displaced Berlin to be included in a list of Europe’s leading business travel destinations.
Last month Rough Guides claimed the Midlands’ city was among the 10 must-see locations for tourists this coming year. Now a survey by Egencia, the business travel offshoot of Expedia, has included Birmingham among its 20 European business travel destinations for the first time — shunting the German capital off the list.
Egencia’s results were based on a survey of business travellers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “Birmingham’s inclusion reflects the growth of the city as an international travel destination that could now hold its own with any in other city in Europe,” said a company spokesman.
“Since 2009 Birmingham has gone from not even being a top 20 European business travel destination to being number 18, taking the place of Berlin, which is pretty extraordinary.”
Among the reasons for the city’s appeal is the expansion of Birmingham Airport, the development of nearby Birmingham Business Park and the continued success of the National Exhibition Centre, described as one of Europe’s biggest conference venues.
“The city’s ability to attract visitors and businesses from across the globe has improved significantly in the past five years,” commented Emma Gray, director of marketing services at Marketing Birmingham.
“Its ever increasing reputation as a business travel destination is also helping to significantly boost the wider economy,” she added. “The Greater Birmingham and Solihull local enterprise partnership area secured more foreign investment projects than any other English region last year and the West Midlands is second only to the South East for the value of its exports.”
Recent Marketing Birmingham figures show it has seen an increase of almost 230,000 international visits in 2013, a year-on-year rise of 32 per cent and the strongest growth in the country. Birmingham is now also the most popular conference and event destination in the UK outside London, which retained its third place in the survey.
Egencia’s Top 20 European business travel destinations visited last year were: 1 – Paris; 2 – Lyon; 3 – London; 4 – Lille; 5 – Marseille; 6 – Nantes; 7 – Toulouse; 8 – Bordeaux; 9 – Strasbourg; 10 – Brussels; 11 – Nice; 12 – Manchester; 13 – Munich; 14 – Rennes; 15 – Amsterdam; 16 – Barcelona; 17 – Frankfurt; 18 – Birmingham; 19 – Madrid, and 20 – Düsseldorf.
Graham Kingsmill is managing director at Egencia UK. “In Britain, the rise of Manchester and Birmingham over this period shows encouraging signs that these cities are catching up with London as developing business hubs, which is a great sign for nationwide economic growth,” he said.
“The data shows that there really is no replacement for doing business face-to-face. This is especially true when prospecting and setting up operations in new areas of the world.”
