Tourism Award

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Mersey Partnership >Liverpool may have found global fame as the home of the Beatles, but for the past generation the city has had to shake off a troubled reputation. It suffered from dreadful inner-city poverty and discontent, which was manifested in the summer of 1981 when the inner-city riots at Toxteth grabbed the national headlines and scarred the city's image. One thing is for sure, riots and inner-city troubles don't encourage visitors and investment, and it has taken some serious hard work by The Mersey Partnership (TMP) to overturn this image.In achieving this - and winning the race to be the 2008 EuropeanCity of Culture - TMP was unanimously voted the winner of the 2004 Tourism Award. All the judges agreed TMP's work in getting Liverpool back on the map as a tourist destination was a great achievement, and winning the EuropeanCity of Culture for 2008 was the icing on the cake, given the strong competition it faced. The partnership was congratulated for its excellent bid and for orchestrating a campaign that was making Liverpool a favoured destination of leisure-seekers and weekenders. The 300-plus members of the organisation have worked in harmony to devise a strategy that attracts 19 million visitors to the region each year. Bob Cotton, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, said that the city would receive a substantial boost from winning the European city of culture, which would have a long-term benefit for the region. He estimated that the financial rewards for the city would run to hundreds millions of pounds through extra tourism. The partnership was also commended by the judges for being an example of best practice when it came to pulling private and public finance initiatives together for the good of the community. The 300-odd partners of TMP pool resources through network forums, research and intelligence access, business and leisure events and dedicated joint-venture initiatives. Evidence of the regions' revamped image was available in basketloads - TMP has contributed to the creation of an extra 16,500 jobs between 1995 and 1999 and 5,000 jobs and £92m of capital investment was a direct result of the work of the organisation. John Thurso, last year's recipient of the tourism award, said: "The city has transformed itself to a place where people want to go. Private and public sector initiatives should have a total effect bigger than sum of the products put together." Richard Tobias, director general of the Tourism Alliance, agreed that the partnership's unique selling point was that it was a great example of how public and private partnership should work together.