Blackpool News / Business Tourism Bullish Blackpool Takes ‘Bring It Back’ Message To Conservative Party Conference 16 October 2018 by Visit Blackpool Bullish Blackpool Takes ‘Bring It Back’ Message To Conservative Party Conference VisitBlackpool joined forces with the town’s Winter Gardens complex and exhibited at the recent Conservative Party Conference for the very first time. The resort’s message to over 10,000 delegates attending the four-day event in Birmingham was very direct: ‘Bring your party conference back to Blackpool’. They also reminded the party faithful that up until 2007 Blackpool’s Winter Gardens was regularly the destination of choice for both Conservative and Labour annual gatherings. However, Blackpool was not simply trading off its past. It highlighted that the town has enjoyed a multi-million pound transformation in recent years including a new £28m Conference & Exhibition Centre being built immediately adjacent to the Winter Garden complex. The Blackpool team also addressed concerns from delegates about Blackpool’s perceived poor transport connectivity and a lack of premium accommodation. They acknowledged that while both factors had contributed to Blackpool falling out of favour with the main political parties in the mid-2000s, millions had been invested in new tourism infrastructure and accommodation. This included upgraded and extended train and tram connections, new direct inter-city services from both London and Birmingham, and seven new hotels having either recently been completed or were in the process of being built. Blackpool’s presence at the Conservative Party Conference also caught the attention of the national media. Sky News’ anchor Kay Burley, and political editor Adam Boulton, were both featured on camera talking about how much they missed covering national party conferences in Blackpool. Sky also broadcast a live two-minute piece about all of the new investments being promoted by the Blackpool delegation at the conference. Last week the New Statesman’s political correspondent Patrick Maguire published a think piece with the headline “Party conferences should return to Blackpool” and stated “If Corbyn and May are really serious about winning towns, they should take their parties there.” Mandy Tythe-McCallum from VisitBlackpool, said: “The response we had in Birmingham from MPs, Ministers and party members about a return to Blackpool was overwhelmingly positive. From older delegates who have very fond memories of the visiting the resort over the last three decades, to young Conservatives who have never been but are ready for a change from the big cities, the appetite for a switch back to the seaside was clear. “However, we also had to work very hard to demonstrate that Blackpool wasn’t just selling nostalgia. We have undergone an £100m investment programme, which has transformed the resort’s visitor infrastructure, and at its heart is a brand-new conference and exhibition centre that has been specifically designed to accommodate modern national party conferences and other large-scale events.” “This is the message we took to the Conservative conference, and the feedback was very encouraging.” The Blackpool team also explained that last year Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry MP visited the Winter Gardens and broke ground on new conference centre site. Mr Berry told the Blackpool Gazette:“I hope that with this new conference centre they can pick up on those big national conferences again and get them here…. on a personal point of view as a Conservative MP in Lancashire I think it is absolutely time that the Conservative Party comes back to Blackpool because the best conferences I have ever been to have always been here.” With the addition of the new Conference and Exhibition Centre, the Winter Gardens will become a hub of 12 distinct venues offering a total of 4.9 acres of connected conference, meeting, event and exhibition space. The 140-year old Winter Gardens itself also currently enjoying a multi-million pound upgrade including a new air conditioning system, improved digital connectivity and extensive refurbishments throughout the complex. The plans for the new Conference Centre and upgraded Winter Gardens has already seen the venue sign-up several new major clients and also welcome back a number of big events which had relocated to other venues. It has also been confirmed the first official conference to take advantage of the new centre and its facilities will be the Tourism Society’s Symposium next September.