Marketing Manchester is the agency charged with promoting Greater Manchester nationally and internationally as a place to visit, invest, meet, and study.
Our work is an essential component to successfully raise the profile of Manchester as the gateway to the North and improve global perceptions and city ranking.
It is our privilege to be the city-region’s destination marketing organisation, which also incorporates the official tourist board for Greater Manchester, as well as the Manchester Convention Bureau. We support MIDAS, Manchester’s inward investment agency in the delivery of promotion focusing on priority sectors and campaigns including digital, innovation and green.
We are proud to be part of The Growth Company, an economic and social development agency that delivers skills, employment, consultancy, and business support services for Greater Manchester and also across the UK – with the aim of enabling growth, creating jobs, and enriching lives.
Marketing Manchester is a Company Limited by Guarantee. It is governed by the private/public Internationalisation & Marketing Advisory Board that reports into The Growth Company Board.
Our work is informed by the Greater Manchester Tourism Strategy, Destination Management Plan, Greater Manchester International Strategy, Greater Manchester Strategy and the Greater Manchester Economic Vision.
Our strategic aims are:
Marketing Manchester’s annual operational objectives are included in The Growth Company’s Business Plan and support the delivery of Greater Manchester’s policies and ambitions including the GM Strategy, the GM Internationalisation Strategy and the GM Local Industrial Strategy.
Marketing Manchester is part of The Growth Company and reports into the International & Marketing Advisory Board, the GMLEP and GMCA
Marketing Manchester works in collaboration with local, regional, national, public and commercial partners; for example, the 10 GM Local Authorities and GMCA and the Northern Gateway Promotion Partnership.
Marketing Manchester was incorporated in April 1996 when it was recognised that although brilliant things were happening in Greater Manchester, as a city-region we needed to be better at telling our story and taking it out into the wider world. We’ve been doing that for over 25 years.
Our purpose has evolved greatly in that time, but we still incorporate Greater Manchester’s official tourist board, bid for major sport and business conferences, and undertake important research on behalf of the visitor economy, as we did in 1996.
We are now also, however, at the forefront of campaigns to attract businesses to our city-region based on our key sector strengths and we have facilitated important partnerships and events for the property sector that have helped to change physical landscape across Greater Manchester. We are now taking that partnership approach into the world of low-carbon, digital and innovation.
We work closely with our Universities to attract and retain students, and with strategic partners to champion economic growth based around a more connected and talented city-region, where all our residents are able to contribute to and benefit from sustained prosperity and a good quality of life.
We’re now also part of The Growth Company and proudly support a wider remit to enable growth, create jobs and improve lives.