Hotels and accommodation providers in Liverpool could be joining forces to help attract event more major events like Eurovision to the North West.
A vote is being held from this weekend to see if a new Accommodation Business Improvement District (BID) should be set up in the city to represent the sector and to provide support for bids to host major events.
Events like Eurovision and the recent Labour Party Conference understandably get the most attention. But there are hundreds of less glamorous trade shows worldwide that also bring hundreds of guests to their host cities, generating huge amounts of business for hotels and venues.
READ MORE: Multi-million pound plan to attract major events to ACC Liverpool
Liverpool's visitor economy has grown substantially in the last 20 years. In 2019, the last full year before Covid, there were 37.06m day visits and overnight tourist trips to Liverpool. That meant the visitor economy was worth £3.35bn, supporting more than 36.9k jobs.
The backers of the BID hope its work would help create 200 jobs in the first year and more than 300 in total by the end of the fifth year, adding £16.5m to the city’s GVA.
The BID would be able to offer financial support- called subvention - to event organisers. In past years the public sector has offered that support, but as austerity has bitten that support has been harder to come by. The BID will use the money it raises from its members to back events and event organisers.
The success of that approach was shown by the fact the public sector and the hotel sector worked together to support the Eurovision bid, which is set to bring a massive boost to the city.
Speaking to BusinessLive, Liverpool BID Company's CEO, Bill Addy, said: "This isn't to support Rod Stewart coming to play. This is to support oncology conferences or international trade conferences, or the whole vast array of large and small conferences that come to Liverpool."
The Accommodation BID is part of a wider city region initiative to support the events sector with a £4.37m package.
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will give £1.42m to the project to "ensure Liverpool remains competitive in attracting lucrative business visitors", while the new BID would provide the private sector funding.
One key aspect of bidding for an event is making sure that enough hotel rooms are ready and reserved for delegates.
This hit the spotlight when Liverpool was announced as Eurovision host. There were immediate reports of full hotels and sky-high prices on platforms such as AirBnB.
But Mr Addy and Liverpool hoteliers stress that in fact hotels had set aside rooms ready for delegates and visitors, and that most venues should not be massively lifting their prices.
Conferences and events benefit not just hotels, but a whole city's economy. More events should help support more hotels, giving a wider economic boost.
Mr Addy said: "From taxi drivers to bars, restaurants, retail, they all benefit from it.
"We've got new hotels coming on stream - like the Radisson Red, which is a fabulous hotel opening at the end of the month. New hotels are planned on power mile and new hotels being built in the Baltic. So we're bringing on stream a large number of hotel rooms to increase the supply. We need to ensure that the demand continues.
"And if we didn't do this (the BID), then demand would drop as conferences would go where the competition is."
That competition ranges from traditional party conference venues such as Brighton and Blackpool to newer entrants like Aberdeen.
Cities in England are not able to levy "tourism taxes" to fund this kind of work, so the BID system would act as an alternative way of getting money to support the city's visitor infrastructure.
Mr Addy said: "Everybody would say 'well you go to America, you pay local sales tax, or you go to Europe you pay a tourist tax on top'. Well, I've just been to Rome and paid 26 euros for two nights in Rome. That's because the legislation is in place that allows it.
"Here in the UK, fiscal control tax raising powers all sit within central government. And they're not going to free those up anytime soon, because they get a lot of cash from the visitor economy in terms of VAT and business rates.
"But there is on the statute books legislation that allows local tax raising and is called a business improvement district. So that's why we're doing it because the clock is ticking. The public sector money is disappearing and the private sector needs to step into it.."
The BID area covers the whole city of Liverpool. Any accommodation businesses that are already in an existing BID in the city centre would switch to the new BID and only have to pay one levy.
If the BID is agreed, a levy would be paid by those accommodation businesses with a rateable value of above £45,000.
Ballot papers were sent out at the end of last week. The deadline for voting is November 25 and the result will be announced on the 28th.
Mr Addy says the response so far from accommodation providers has been positive. The BID has been working closely with Liverpool Hospitality and Marcus Magee.
He said: "Those hotels we've spoken to in the main are very supportive. And that includes as you would imagine a lot of the larger brands but it also includes some of the newer entrants into the market."
Ann Chambers, founder and chief executive of iStay Liverpool, is supporting the Accommodation BID.
She said: "The city of Liverpool needs its most important sector,hospitality, to have a dedicated group who can support the range of accommodation providers in the city. We have moved on a great deal in the past 10 years with the offering the city now has, but we still have a long way to go.
"Hospitality was at the forefront of the push to drive the Liverpool economy post pandemic. We have all noted how our cities have changed since covid-19 and the way people now work and socialise has changed forever.
"We need strong representation for Liverpool’s nightlife, as we have dropped from number one for a night out to now well behind the likes of Bristol, Newcastle and Manchester ( who all have dedicated and funded teams in place for nightlife ) so I welcome with open arms the chance for a dedicated team to help support the accommodation sector."
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