During Liverpool 2008, 1.5 million visitors spent £40 million on events costing nearly £11 million. Liverpool Biennial, which achieved 960,000 visits in 2008, continues to generate an international profile for the city.
This demonstrates how such international and national attention enhances the identity of cities as tourism destinations, so it isn't surprising that
Prime Minister David Cameron has singled out Liverpool, and its year as European Capital of Culture, as a major example of how tourism can help bring economic success. Speaking at the Serpentine Gallery in central London to an audience of tourism industry professionals, he called on other cities in the UK to adopt the same approach to Liverpool and put tourism at the heart of their growth strategies.
Figures published recently for 2009 indicate that cultural events staged in Liverpool during the past year have brought more than £30 million into the city, according to the research commissioned by Liverpool City Council. The report found that 915,000 visitors spent £33 million during 2009, attending events that cost £2.5 million to stage.
Cultural tourism is also having a significant impact on Cumbria's economy. An evaluation, carried out by the University of Manchester, of the Lakes Alive Festival 2009 in Cumbria indicated that Lakes Alive specifically attracted 16,790 'new' visitors to the county, 5,090 of whom came from outside of the North West region. Lakes Alive is a four year programme of inspirational outdoor events across Cumbria to help celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The evaluation has also shown that spending by attenders at Lakes Alive events in 2009 contributed an additional £2.4 million to the Cumbrian local economy.
Early figures coming out of Lakes Alive 2010 are equally impressive. Thousands of people enjoyed a series of exciting and unusual outdoor performances across Cumbria during the 10 days from 23 July 2010. Five different events, which were organised by Lakes Alive in 11 places across Cumbria, were seen by an audience of over 12,000 people.
Julie Tait, the director of Kendal Arts International who, along with Manchester International Arts, organises Lakes Alive, said: 'We've been delighted by the number of people who turned out for the events - which exceeded all expectations - and also by fantastic responses of the audiences.'
Research by Lakes Alive shows that more than 75% of people at the shows were there especially to see the events and the response of the audiences was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Local catering and accommodation businesses reported an increase in business in the run up to and during the events.
Elsewhere in the North West, Dream, St Helens' landmark sculpture, has just been named as the face of a new tourism campaign. Dream - a 66ft (20m) high sculpture of a girl's head with her eyes closed - stands on the former Sutton Manor Colliery in St Helens. A group of local ex-miners chose the design by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.
The sculpture has been chosen by VisitEngland to launch the national Place of Interest Quality Assurance Scheme (PIQAS) which picks out top attractions.
In Manchester, figures from this year's FutureEverything festival reveal that it reached 50,000 people across 40 venues, with 15% of delegates coming from outside of the UK, and 660,000 unique visits online, once again affirming the festival's huge draw as a key destination for all things digital.
- Source, Arts Council England