DREarlier this year, England hosted the 12th Cricket World Cup (CWC). Six matches including the semi-finals were played in Manchester with the highlight being the India-Pakistan game on June 16. Approximately 2.6 billion people around the world watched the tournament, making it the most-watched cricket competition ever.
“This is the first year of our campaign in India working alongside VisitBritain and the Cricket World Cup was the icing on the cake. We secured in-stadia branding for Visit Manchester and the response has been phenomenal,” said Sheona Southern, MD, Marketing Manchester. UK’s visa services partner VFS Global processed over 2,00,000 visa applications in India, during the period of January 2019 to April 2019. “This year, in the first half we grew 25 per cent over last year thanks to cricket but halfway through the season we lost the Mumbai-Manchester direct service by Jet Airways,” added Southern.
“The real outcomes of our India focused cricket tourism marketing pitch will be known in the next few years.” The long term strategy for Marketing Manchester is to position the city as a gateway destination for exploring the rest of Northern England. For first time travellers to the UK, London is a ‘must visit’ destination. Repeat visitors are more likely to explore other cities like Manchester, Liverpool and the rest of Northern England. As a gateway city to the North, this is certain to enhance the length of stay in Manchester. Manchester is investing heavily towards growing the tourism pie. The airport redevelopment project has been ongoing and will be able to serve 45 million passengers when it opens in the summer of 2020. On the hotel inventory front, Manchester has 23,000 beds now and in the next 2-3 years will add 6000 more. Dakota Hotel opened earlier this year and late last year IHG opened Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites.
