Football and art play hosts to Discovery 2008

Old Trafford stadium in Manchester and Tate Liverpool are just two of the prestigious venues that will host VisitBritain's bi-annual flagship incentive experience, Discovery, on 19-21 October.

The Discovery event enables international buyers from the world's leading companies to identify the venues, destinations and experiences for their meetings, conferences and incentive programmes.

Manchester and Liverpool are the two winning cities that will hold the event, which takes place during Liverpool's celebrations as European Capital of Culture.

The event is expected to attract more than 80 top quality overseas buyers and journalists from 20 countries, as well as representatives from around 80 key UK suppliers - representing the best of the UK's products and services.

Delegates will be sent on a familiarisation trip around parts of Britain before being taken to their accommodation in Manchester.

The opening ceremony, at the Tate in Liverpool, will be followed by a range of activities to showcase some of the highlights of Manchester and Liverpool.

The next day, workshops at Old Trafford will give delegates the opportunity to meet up and discuss business opportunities.

Joss Croft, VisitBritain's head of business visits and events, says: "Discovery is one of the showcase events of Britain's tourism calendar; it brings together companies with large budgets for events and incentive programmes with leading product suppliers from around the UK.

"Meetings and incentive travel is worth around GBP1.2 billion annually to the British economy and this event will help us increase its value and Britain's market share.

"We want to provide prospective buyers with an inspirational, unique and memorable snapshot of the UK.

"We're aiming to challenge perceptions of this country, demonstrating the attractiveness of the destination, not based solely on historic attractions but on Britain's modernity, dynamism and business efficiency.

"We'll also show international buyers the quality and variety of options available to them.

"They will get an 'only in Britain' experience, combining value for money with top quality food and wine, a breadth of experiences, good service, together with Britain's rich cultural offerings.

Discovery 2008 will be an opportunity to allow buyers to experience first-hand a different side to Britain".

Andrew Stokes, chief executive, Marketing Manchester, said: "This is a major coup for Manchester and Liverpool; Discovery is one of the most important meeting and incentive events in the industry.

"For VisitBritain to choose Manchester as one of the host cities shows how high they regard us as one of the UK's unique selling points.

"We're looking forward to highlighting the diverse range of venues between the two cities and raising the profile of some of our hidden gems".

The last event in 2006 included some top organisations from the UK, including Sheraton, Hilton, Savoy, Park Plaza and several leading tourist agencies.

Discovery 2006 went very well with one Danish buyer saying it was fantastic.

A Belgian buyer said they had a great four days and it was: "A real discovery of a fascinating country...VisitBritain put together a programme that amazed everybody".

A UK supplier secured the possibility of a large association piece of business for 1,400 delegates in 2010 worth Euro2m.

VisitBritain has run a programme of workshops for the meeting and incentive travel industry for around 20 years and is inviting buyers and UK partners to Discovery 2008.

The event will increase the UK's business in the incentive and corporate meetings sector by showcasing Britain to international buyers as the destination of choice for meetings and incentives.

Discovery 2008 is supported by Marketing Manchester, Mersey Partnership and the North West Development Agency.

VisitBritain is responsible for promoting Britain as a world class tourist destination and for developing England's visitor economy.

It has representatives in 36 countries around the world and, in the last three years, has expanded into China, throughout Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, and increased its presence in India with representatives in Bangalore and Mumbai.

In 2006, provisional data indicates that there were 32.2 million visits to Britain, 7 per cent up on 2005.

They spent GBP15.4 billion in the UK: an 8 per cent increase on 2005.

VisitBritain's international website was awarded World's Leading Tourism Authority Internet Site for the third year in a row at the 2006 World Travel Awards by more than 200,000 travel and tourism professionals.

With information provided in 26 different languages, every year over 12 million visits are made by international consumers to the 46 websites that make up visitbritain.com.

VisitBritain plans to increase this to 25 million by 2009.

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