Venue welcomes over 123,600 visitors in first three months of 2024
Venue adds £21.6m to Greater Manchester economy
New CEO, Lori Hoinkes, will move to replace outgoing Shaun Hinds in May
Manchester Central – one of the UK’s largest event venues – has said it ‘remains extremely confident in its growth trajectory’ as quarterly figures show a strong business performance ahead of new CEO, Lori Hoinkes, joining next month.
Figures from its latest Economic Index covering the first three months of the year (1 January – 31 March 2024) revealed the venue welcomed over 123,600 visitors to 41 events in the quarter (an increase of over 8,440 on the same period last year) once again signalling the region’s economic strength and organiser appetite to host large-scale events outside London.
Events held at the 10,000-capacity venue in the quarter included LEGO’s Bricktastic, the acclaimed Northern Restaurant and Bar exhibition and elite global sports event HYROX. The quarter’s events brought the total number of conferences, exhibitions and events held at the venue in the financial year to 152.
At the end of March, the venue also hosted the World Snooker Tour, a ten-day event broadcast live on ITV which saw Mark Williams beat Ronnie O'Sullivan to win the title.
The report revealed that the inbound tourism created by the events held at the venue from January to March added over £21.6million to the Greater Manchester economy, through secondary sales in hospitality and hotel bookings.
CEO, Shaun Hinds, who leaves in May to take up the role of Chief Executive at Newbury Racecourse, said,
“I’m extremely pleased with how the venue has performed through this quarter. With an incoming change in leadership, it can be easy to assume a period of instability, however these figures not only demonstrate the strength of the venue and our ability to host large events, but also the expertise of the leadership team we have in place.
“We have put the necessary plans in place to ensure a seamless transition as Lori comes on board, and together with the team, we are confident of the strong trajectory we are on.
“Over the next quarter, we look forward to welcoming the likes of Housing 2024 and DTX Manchester to the venue, and we will also focus on continuing the build of our exciting new bar, restaurant and social workspace, Junction.
“This development will transform our venue – not only will it provide an extra edge for organisers as an additional social space to connect and network, but for the first time we will actively be welcoming tourists and professionals who may not be visiting Manchester Central for a specific event, but who want to enjoy a drink or somewhere to work from during the day. It will be a fantastic addition and we cannot wait to open Junction’s doors in the summer”
More than 78 events are already scheduled to take place at the venue for the remainder of 2024 as the North West continues to make gains on London in becoming the UK’s predominant events capital.
These include July’s MegaCon Live which is expected to welcome over 15,000 attendees and the prestigious international music convention WOMEX in October where it's estimated that the total value of business generated will be £28.3m.