Newcastle and Gateshead hospitality venues create a UK first with £150m Covid “fightback campaign”

Venues across Newcastle and Gateshead have united in a major campaign to bounce back from Covid and recapture the £150m a year business events and meetings market.

A total of 35 venues ranging from major hotel chains to historic buildings have joined forces to help build back event organisers’ confidence in staging everything from international conferences to team building sessions in Newcastle and Gateshead.

The campaign, called Tyne To Get Back To Business, has seen all 35 venues gain coveted AIM Secure accreditation. As the only Government-recognised accreditation for business meetings and events, the quality standard has been enhanced over the last two years to help venues adapt to deliver events as safely as possible in a world with Covid.

The campaign is being led by the NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau in collaboration with industry body the Meetings Industry Association (MIA) and has been funded by Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Council.

Paul Szomoru, director of business events at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said: “Before Covid struck, business events attracted almost one million people a year to Newcastle and Gateshead to attend meetings, conferences and exhibitions.

“Venues and hotels in Newcastle and Gateshead have faced a very challenging time over the past two years but they are determined to bounce back and that’s what Tyne To Get Back To Business is all about.

“We’ll be sharing venues’ stories, showing off their facilities and capabilities and showing business event organisers why they should choose NewcastleGateshead. Our iconic cityscape and vibrant atmosphere coupled with the assurance of AIM Secure accreditation means there are even more reasons to sample our famous Geordie welcome.”

Kerrin MacPhie, chief executive of the Meetings Industry Association, added: “The pandemic has tested the business meetings and events sector like nothing else before, but it has shown tremendous resilience and agility over the past two years.

“This fantastic initiative is typical of the determination and tenacity of the sector, its people and venues who operate within it. As we emerge from the pandemic, there is a real appetite for more face to face meetings and events, but there is still understandable caution amongst organisers about the welfare of their delegates.”