Adam Bates has the £1 billion job. That’s how much money tourism and the conference trade generates for the local economy.
Mr Bates has spent ten years as the head of tourism in Brighton and Hove. His job title has changed a few times over those years – he is now the head of tourism and leisure at Brighton and Hove City Council.
And the value generated by visitors probably exceeds the £1 billion estimate produced two years ago by researchers in a report about the economic impact of tourism.
He occupies the Mayor’s office at Brighton Town Hall. He said: “When I started, I was put in here and told it would be temporary. Ten years later, I’m still here.” The Mayor and her team are billeted next door.
Every now and then, there are cheers from just below his window as happy couples emerge from the register office with their wedding parties.
If that’s not enough to lift the spirits, a glance at Brighton’s record as a destination over the past ten years ought to gladden the hearts of those who care about our city by the sea.
Mr Bates said: “The value of tourism grew by about £195 million between 2003 and 2010. So the city has done OK in the face of stiff competition.
“But the last few years have undoubtedly been tough for local businesses.
“The Brighton Centre generates events with a value of around £60 million to the economy each year and the Convention Bureau generates a similar amount of new business each year.”
Next month the Labour Party conference arrives in town, with dozens of hotels full booked. Many more pubs, bars and restaurants can expect to do a good trade.
The Convention Bureau attracts not only the high-profile annual party conferences but year-round bookings from trade unions and a host of academic, medical and religious organisations among others.
The British Red Cross, the Mind, Body and Spirit Festival and the Brighton Marathon exhibition are all booked in over the coming year.
Mr Bates returned to Brighton to start his current job in 2003. He spent four years here as a student. He did a degree in hotel and catering management at the poly – now Brighton University.
Then he went to work for Disneyland Paris as a management trainee. From there he joined the British Tourist Authority which rebranded itself as Visit Britain ten years ago – the same year that Mr Bates came back to Brighton.
It wasn’t long before the new head of tourism was running Visit Brighton. He is proud of setting up Visit Brighton “and its transition from a service with no partners to one with 450 and from a service which relied upon printed brochures to one driven by a digital offering”.
The money contributed by those 450 partners pays for the way Brighton promotes itself to tourists, the conference trade and a host of other visitors.
