The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will take place from July 28 to August 8 this year - the biggest sporting and cultural event ever held in the city.
TTN was invited to the ‘Culture and Sport in the Global Economy’ event held in Dubai last month, which was attended by high-profile speakers, led by the UK’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Nadine Dorries. Dame Judith McGregor, Dame Louise Martin, Commonwealth Games, and Lord Bilimoria were also among the panellists.
“2022 will be a historic year for the UK,” Nadine Dorries said. “It's going to be a celebration to remember, with three showstopper events: The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, featuring thousands of world-class athletes and over a million spectators; our nationwide festival of Unboxed: Creativity in the UK; and Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, with four days of the very best of British pomp and pageantry.
“The buzz is building and the aim is to covert that excitement into trade, tourism and investment in the region through our £24 million ($32.5 million) business and tourism programme. The programme will run for three years before, during and after the Commonwealth Games, and by 2027 it aims to fulfil some key goals. We want to attract 39,000 additional international visitors to the UK and to the West Midlands. We want to secure £650 million of new overseas investment and we want to create £7 million worth of additional export deals,” the UK’s Secretary of State said.
Backed by £778 million of public funding, Birmingham 2022 will deliver 11 days of amazing sport. Alongside the sport programme, the games will be accompanied by a six-month cultural festival and the Queen’s Baton Relay will travel around the Commonwealth and the UK before arriving in Birmingham for the Opening Ceremony.
For the last 50 or so years, Birmingham has built a solid foundation in business tourism with its centrally located conference centre and exhibition centre on the outskirts.
“The Commonwealth Games give the city of Birmingham a real opportunity to present our city to the world,” Birmingham City Council Leader, Councillor Ian Ward, tells TTN on the side lines of the event. “We are expecting a global television audience of more than one billion people to see Birmingham and its diversity.”
“We're keen to grow the leisure tourism market,” Councillor Ward tells us. “When you come to Birmingham, you will find a vibrant city with a youthful population: 40 per cent of our population is under the age of 30. You'll also find a very warm welcome because Birmingham has always been a city of migration. About 30 per cent of our population is Muslim. It’s a very inclusive city with lots of prayer halls and halal food options. We have family attractions as well - Cadbury World and Lego Land especially will resonate well with younger travellers. We see the Middle East as a growth market for the city going forward.
“There is a lot of interest in investment from the Middle East into Birmingham – and we have a number of projects that are underway, office developments in particular, but increasingly now in employment and logistics. We are one of the only cities from the United Kingdom currently coming out and having these conversations with potential investors and developers here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.”
The Grand Hotel in Birmingham, which first opened in 1879, has reopened in May 2021 after a £50 million restoration and refurbishment. “It is a superb place for anybody visiting Birmingham to stay. We're in talks with developers for a new five-star hotel in the city, as we don't have one yet.
“We were recently featured in the Conde Nast Traveller magazine as a destination for travellers who are interested in gastronomy. Birmingham and its surrounding regions have 11 Michelin-starred restaurants – this is more than anywhere outside London in the UK. We also have a Balti triangle, a collection of renowned Indian restaurants, which is a destination in itself.
“We have a fantastic arts and cultural offering in Birmingham. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is known around the world, so is Birmingham Royal Ballet. We have the most popular theatre outside of London – it has more visits than any other theatre outside of London. Just down the road from Birmingham is Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. We're looking to capitalise on our arts and culture offer to attract people to the city. We also have some fantastic countryside on our doorstep in Berkshire, in the Cotswolds.”
Going forward, the city of Birmingham aims to create a legacy annual cultural festival each summer. “We know that there are already half a million visitors from Dubai and the United Arab Emirates into the United Kingdom each year. We'd like to capture a greater slice of those visitors into the city of Birmingham,” Councillor Ward says.