High proportion of manufacturing business visitors to North West

The majority of business travellers coming to Manchester are thought to be from manufacturing corporations.

Research from Deloitte, Manchester Airports Group (MAG) and MIDAS through their business traveller survey found 35% of visitors were from manufacturing businesses; 11% were from healthcare and life science industries and 8% were from telecoms and media businesses.

The survey revealed most international business travellers stayed in the North West (67%), while 16% visited Yorkshire and 4% travelled to both the North East and East Midlands.

Tim Newns, chief executive of MIDAS, Manchester’s inward investment agency, said: “As Manchester is primarily a services based economy it is interesting to see that a high proportion of international business travellers are coming from the manufacturing industry.

“These findings demonstrate the importance of advanced manufacturing to the local economy and how vital the international supply chains are in connecting Greater Manchester globally.

“Niche areas of business growth such as digital healthcare and TMT will continue to play an important part in job creation, alongside advanced manufacturing, and Manchester continues to establish itself as a global hub in these fields.

“We are keen to encourage more international businesses to invest in Manchester and to utilise our highly-skilled talent pool and create jobs; we will use the data to leverage opportunities in this area.”

Roger Westerbeek , head of Customer Relationship Management for MAG, said: “Manchester Airport is aglobal gateway which not only serves the North West, but the whole of Northern England & areas of Scotland.

“I’m encouraged that both established and emerging sectors are bringing in international business visitors and we’re confident that the completion of Airport City will lead to a further increase in the volume of traffic.

“Manchester is a city of international business standing and the volume of traffic we’re seeing through the terminals substantiates it.

“It’s extremely important that emerging economies appreciate the benefits of doing business in the region and we will continue to drive this message home in the future. We’re committed to improving aviation links to the right destinations around the world and the diversity demonstrated in the survey supports our ambitions.”