Job profile
Job title:
Reporting to:
Direct
Reports:
Contract
terms:
Job Purpose:
Visitor Economy Business Development Manager
Director of Marketing and Communications
2 x Business Development Executives
Permanent contract based in Birmingham City Centre
Salary: circa £30,000 plus benefits


Date:
Support the implementation of the Greater Birmingham
Visitor Economy Strategy by focusing on:
- Business tourism – generating and converting leads
and confirmed conference and events business within
the Birmingham Region.
- Travel trade – to support packaging and sales
requirements that will attract business and leisure
visitors
To manage the staff delivering the Birmingham Convention
Bureau support services to include accommodation booking
and venue location
June 2015
This role is funded by the European Union
As the Visitor Economy Business Development Manager you will work towards the
implementation of the Greater Birmingham Visitor Economy Strategy (VES). The VES
aims to deliver targeted growth - visitor volume and value - in order to support the
economic performance of the tourism sector and generate jobs.
The central purpose of this role is to develop, implement and deliver a proactive sales
plan that will:



Drive the destination’s conferencing proposition to generate and convert leads
from national and international association conferences, meetings, incentives,
events and exhibitions within the MICE industry;
Maximise Birmingham Convention Bureau-related support services and manage
the staff within the team to deliver;
o accommodation booking
o venue location enquiries;
Ensure Greater Birmingham is packaged and sold more effectively to attract
business and leisure visits to the city by working with the travel trade to target
national and international markets.
Job profile
Key accountabilities
Business tourism

Planning - establish annual sales plans to develop Greater Birmingham’s position as
a world class conference, event, exhibition, incentives and visitor economy
destination. The plan should be aligned to key markets and sectors and focus on
proactively promoting and placing tourism business within the Birmingham region. In
particular, the plan needs to focus on attracting sizeable national and
international association conference business and travel multipliers.

Lead generation and management - making full use of market research and
intelligence to develop conference, exhibition and event leads to benefit businesses
within the Birmingham City region. Responsibility involves developing a proactive bid
strategy and maintaining and converting pipeline targets in partnership with sales
teams of relevant key products and stakeholders in the city and where appropriate
across the region.

Stakeholder management - working closely with partners at venues from across the
ERDF project area to develop conference, exhibition and event bids in line with the
project strategy. Ensuring co-ordinated delivery of activity, and where appropriate,
joined up systems across the ERDF Project area.

Industry development - ensure that Marketing Birmingham develops strategic
relationships with industry partners (regionally, nationally, and internationally) and
represent Marketing Birmingham and the destination at conference, exhibition and
event industry forums to establish and develop a leading position for the ERDF
project
area
within
the
industry.

Attraction and retention schemes - manage and develop programmes that are
designed to support corporate, association and industry clients holding their events
in the Birmingham City region. These include;
- Welcome to Birmingham - Event Support Package
- Birmingham Ambassador Programme, working closely with universities in the
region in order to strengthen and promote the academic ambassador
programme.

Develop support services - manage and develop key services that support
business and drive revenue streams, ensuring that both conversion rates and
product awareness are maximised at all times. These include:
o
o
Venue location services
Accommodation booking services
Job profile
Travel Trade
 Proactive sales – develop an effective national and international travel trade


network of agents, buyers and intermediary organisations including
VisitEngland, VisitBritain, UKInbound, ETOA, M&IT, C&IT etc.
Regional product - work with key stakeholders across the city in order to
promote the Birmingham City region as a leading travel trade location. Identify
and deliver commercial relationships with other stakeholders where there is a
mutual benefit to deliver MICE and travel trade business.
Sale missions - attend key national and international industry exhibitions,
forums, events and sales missions to raise the profile of the company and
maintain Birmingham’s position as a leading visitor location, whilst also
maintaining awareness of competitor developments. Combine with direct
travel trade sales to augment the offering, driving Birmingham hub and spoke
and itinerary based packages to maximise ROI.
Financial management
 Procurement - manage the procurement process against company financial
guidelines and ensure delivery is compliant with all the relevant funding conditions
and EU regulations, in particular concerning procurement, and record keeping.
 Commercial activity - work to identify opportunities for partners to promote their
businesses and services, with a particular focus on possible routes for income
generation such as sponsorship, match funding and promotional content support
from stakeholders to facilitate delivery of visitor economy national and international
campaigns.
Performance management
 Direct management - manage a small team to deliver programme activity, with
responsibility for personal development.
 Indirect management – manage and lead projects teams with representatives
across the business.
 Stakeholder management - Lead external project teams, when necessary, to
deliver plans or sub-projects. Ensure joined up co-ordinated delivery of activity, and
where appropriate joined up systems, across programme partners.
 Internal - provide regular management information to enable measurement and
evaluation of business activity. Regularly review and evaluate all project activity
against key performance indicators
 External - inform partners from across the ERDF project area of progress and
any return on investment.
 Individual - to pursue personal and professional development necessary for the
effective performance of the role and maintain knowledge in the relevant field at
all times. To undertake any such duties commensurate with the post as may be
required.
Job profile
Personal Attributes
Essential
-
Desirable
-
Circa 2-5 years sales experience in the conference, exhibition,
hospitality industry or related sectors with demonstrable results
Self-starter, proactive, motivated and commercially focused - target
and results driven
Experience of working within a commercial sales environment
generating pipelines, targets and the successful delivery of KPIs
and performance measurements
Understanding of corporate priorities and ability to demonstrate a
proactive, flexible and targeted approach to developing and acting
upon sales opportunities
Experience of partnership building and the ability to quickly
establish sustainable relationships with key stakeholders and
clients
Be available to travel both around and outside the UK, often
requiring overnight stays
Experience of preparing competitive bids and/or tenders
First class verbal and written communication skills, in particular
confident presentation capabilities
Sound understanding of PR, marketing within the visitor economy
market ( & an understanding of inward investment is desirable)
Highly organised, with good time management skills, with
experience of working to tight deadlines and deploying internal and
external resources
Experience of successful attendance at relevant sales missions,
exhibitions and events and within the travel trade
Excellent current product and sector knowledge of the Birmingham
City region and wider UK offer is preferable
Knowledge of marketing industry and/or destination
marketing
Experience of managing projects and people
Graduate (or equivalent) in a related subject