Raising the profile of Coventry + arts, sports & cultural opportunities
Coventry continues to grow its international presence through active place promotion both in the UK and overseas. The city has a longstanding relationship with partners in China through several recent significant investment deals and this remains a key market. In addition, the City is expanding its international approach and has over the last year begun to actively engage new markets across Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. This activity allows the City to demonstrate the pipeline of planned developments ripe for investment as well as the collaboration and investment opportunities created through our leadership in emerging sectors such as electric vehicle battery development and connected autonomous vehicles. In the last 12 months, Coventry has been involved in the delivery of 4 high profile outward missions as part of this new direction to increase its global presence. The City has also hosted 15 international delegations of government officials, businesses and investors over the same time period providing a platform to profile the regions strong economy, excellent relationships with partner organisations, two world-class universities, technical assets and fantastic support services on offer.
Hosting major events
The city was UK European City of Sport during 2019, holding over 180 events around the city. Summer saw Coventry host Europe’s largest corporate multi-sports festival. The four-day event had:
• over 3,000 people take part in 23 sports;
• 170,000+ participants;
• 180 events;
• 7,500 joined the Festival of Running; and
• 10,500 took part in Let’s Ride Coventry’s year as European City of Sport in 2019 saw a massive investment in sport and leisure, thousands getting active, and created a legacy for years to come. During Coventry’s year as European City of Sport, many high-profile events were attracted to Coventry, such as European Corporate Games, with over 3,000 people taking part, Street Games National Conference and Velo West Midlands and The Premier League Kicks National tournament with over 80 football league teams represented. Along with these fantastic events, international ice hockey was played at the Sky Dome whilst England Under 20s played rugby union against South Africa at the Butts Park Arena.
Community Festivals, which were hosted in partnership with Vodafone and CityFibre, helped to engage people of all ages in a wide range of sports. In fact, throughout the year, over 170,000 people were supported to become physically active through a variety of events, projects, and activities.
MotoFest Coventry 2019 saw much increased attendance records, with 229,292 visitors recorded at this year’s festival. In an incredible gauge of the event’s rising popularity, MotoFest Coventry recorded its first-ever six-figure attendance on the first day, as around 140,000 visitors enjoyed the sights and sounds of the UK’s largest urban motoring festival.
July 2019 thousands enjoyed family fun at Godiva Festival
More than 75,000 people flocked to the War Memorial Park to enjoy a range of action-packed events at the popular Godiva Festival. It was the first year that the event was ticketed, and the festival, in its 21st year, offered something for all ages, with performances from Busted, Levellers, Afro Celt Sound System, Feeder and Pinkfong Baby Shark, to name but a few. Visitors also enjoyed plenty of fun in the Family Field, with the mini petting farm, birds of prey, funfair and Go CV Sports and Wellbeing Zone proving popular and there was a tribute to 40 years of 2-Tone, with a performance from The Selecter.
August 2019 European Corporate Games was hailed as a great success for the city. The Europe Corporate Games helped Coventry celebrate its role as European City of Sport - and reinforce its reputation as a ‘friendly, welcoming city’. The Games saw thousands of amateur athletes gather in Coventry for a massive celebration of sport. Council athletes did brilliantly, with many medal performances in a variety of sports.
Thousands take to the streets for Let’s Ride September 2019
Thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity to cycle through Coventry’s trafficfree streets, as part of HSBC UK Let’s Ride Coventry. A record-breaking total of 10,500 locals got on their bikes to tackle the 5km course, which set off from opposite the Council House, taking in local landmarks and a host of family-friendly activities on the way.
Commonwealth sports switch for Ricoh
Coventry’s Ricoh Arena will be a host venue for rugby sevens, judo, and wrestling at the Commonwealth Games 2022.
The Wave destination waterpark and a new 50m pool.
The city’s £36.7m waterpark, The Wave, opened its doors to the public in October 2019.. At the centre of the state-of-the-art waterpark are six high octane slides, each offering a combination of speed and thrills.
From the Torrent - which drops riders 20 metres into the plunge pool - to roller coaster rides like the Cyclone, each slide is a unique experience, with light and sound features to ensure complete immersion for riders.
There is also a splash pad area with jets, tipping buckets and smaller accessible slides for toddlers, a lazy river, a poolside cafe and wave pool which churns over 20 million litres of water every day.
The new 50m pool at the Alan Higgs Centre opened February 2020. Costing £13.5m, Coventry City Council and Sport England funded the project that is now another great addition to the city’s fantastic sporting facilities.
Special features of the pool include the moving floor that can be raised to deck level and be lowered all the way to two metres. The pool can be divided into smaller sections using a boom, making it suitable for all events including swimming lessons and galas while also being suitable for swimmers of all ages and abilities. A pool pod to hoist users with disabilities is available along with fully accredited Changing Places facilities.
Go CV residents’ loyalty card
In March 2020 Go CV celebrated its first birthday and thanked partners and all 45,000 of its fantastic card holders for joining in its first momentous year!
Whilst in lockdown residents could not use many of the privileges and benefits that come with the Go CV card, however, people could still sign up and have a browse of the website to see what was on offer. Restrictions are changing all the time and many partners are getting things in place to open safely.
Coventry City of Culture 2021
Preparations for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 began in earnest in the year. However the COVID-19 pandemic required an immediate response to protect the City’s existing arts and cultural base from the effects of the initial lockdown and to enable an effective recovery to ensure that Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 will still be a national celebration which will linger in the City’s memory for generations. www.coventry2021.co.uk
For a full year starting in May 2021, we will celebrate our city with events, music, dance, theatre, and large-scale spectacle. As well as these big celebrations, our city will show its unexpected side, with more intimate experiences and ways to get involved across every ward of the city. And it is not just Coventry. This celebration will see the entire region get involved and benefit from the opportunities that being City of Culture brings. A key element of this will be the City of Culture Leadership Programme. The aim of the programme is to strengthen and diversify the next generation of leadership for Coventry’s creative sector, to reflect the diversity and cultural strengths of the city.
Promoting Coventry as a visitor destination
Coventry has seen record-breaking growth in the number of people visiting the city in 2019/2020 compared to previous years - and the city’s food and drink sector has seen the largest rise.
The figures were set out in an annual report commissioned by the Coventry Destination Management Partnership and Coventry Business Improvement District. The Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor (STEAM) report is a tourism economic impact model that helps to indicate growth trends and the value of the city’s visitor economy. The data provides us with a good benchmark to understand the value of our visitor economy, as well as the COVID-19 and City of Culture 2021 impacts in future surveys.
Highlights include:
- Record-breaking growth in visitor numbers from 8.9m in 2016 to over 10m in 2019
- Coventry’s visitor economy was worth £594m in 2019 – up 4.6% on 2018
- Coventry is leading CWLEP’s visitor economy growth – 4.6% growth in value (Cov) versus 3.5% (CWLEP)
- Both day and overnight visitors are in growth, but we have seen a greater percentage increase in overnight stays versus 2018
- Coventry has a very balanced distribution of contribution from visitor economy sectors, which is positive
- Food & drink sector represents the largest overall contribution (29%) at £110m (up 6.1% on 2018)
- Direct employment from all visitor types rose by 3.3% in 2019 to 5275 – the staying visitor employment increase was 4.7%