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The competition is part of the UK Government’s
Tourism Sector Deal
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Investment will help to boost the £32 billion
business events sector
Tourism Minister has launched a
competition for conference centres across the UK to apply
for funding to improve broadband infrastructure with the
aim of hosting more international conferences at UK
venues.
The £250,000 funding will be awarded to venues across the
UK to support the improvement of on-site broadband
facilities and help them attract more international
business events.
Applications for funding will be open to event venues with
conference facilities, including hotels and event centres,
that bid for - or plan to bid for - events which attract
international delegates.
Winners will be able to upgrade their existing connectivity
to full fibre broadband which will support faster data
speeds and higher usage volumes. This forms part of the
Government’s commitment to rollout the required digital
infrastructure to create more opportunities for businesses.
Conference venues will be able to offer more interactive
content, and organisers can live stream the events to
international audiences.
Tourism Minister said:
We want the UK to attract the biggest and best
international business events to help grow our economy
and encourage trade and investment. Ensuring our
conference facilities can deliver the connectivity and
facilities organisers want and need is crucial to help
achieve this and there is a great deal of scope to expand
this area.
Our Tourism Sector Deal is providing a broadband boost to
the country’s business events industry, and I would
encourage all eligible venues to apply.”
In 2017, the UK hosted 592 international association
meetings with business visitors making up almost a quarter
of the 38 million visits to the UK in 2018 and providing
a boost to visitor numbers during the off peak
season. The sector is currently worth £32.6 billion to the
UK economy with delegates spending £4.5 billion and more
than half returning as leisure visitors.
This investment, part of the UK Government’s Tourism Sector
Deal, will help to attract more business visits and events
by making destinations across the UK more attractive to
international event organisers.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s
Building Digital UK scheme has already boosted the
broadband capacity at more than 60 hotels through the
Gigabit voucher scheme.
Michael Hirst, Chair of the Events Industry Board said:
The business events industry welcomes the UK government’s
new £250,000 competition to improve broadband
connectivity in event venues. This is a strong
recognition of the importance of helping to support the
growth of first class infrastructure in Britain’s large
range of diverse world class business event facilities.
It will help immensely in continuing to present Britain
as a leading global destination for business events.
To be eligible, venues must have capacity for more than 400
delegates, have hosted at least one international event in
the last year where a third of attendees were from outside
the UK, or be able to demonstrate plans to do so in the
next year.
The funding is part of the UK Government’s Tourism Sector
Deal which sets out how we will work with the sector to
grow the country’s tourism industry and to ensure we have
the infrastructure to cope with the predicted growth in
international business and leisure visitors.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Further information on the scheme and application forms
can be found here.
- By 2025 experts predict that there will be an
additional 9 million visitors to the UK each year.
- Trade conducted at international business is estimated
to be worth over £150 billion annually.
