The success of Newcastle United is a huge part of a plan to double the size of the region’s tourism economy over the next decade, according to one of the region’s tourism chiefs.
Ian Thomas, destination director at the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI), spoke to ChronicleLive on the club’s role in boosting the region’s tourism economy ahead of new images of plans for St James’ Park’s Stack Fanzone being revealed on Monday.
The Fanzone consists of bars and street food stalls and is earmarked for the disused car park next to St James’ Metro station – though at the moment, it is just in the planning stage.
However, the fanzone, should it go ahead, is just a small part of what the city’s football club is expected to bring to a plan which would see the tourism economy grow from £5 billion to £10 billion by 2033. This season’s Champions League fixtures against PSG, Dortmund, and AC Milan are expected to provide a £4 million boost alone, but NGI has its sights set on the longer-term.
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Ian said: “Over the next ten years, that would include St James’ Park hopefully hosting the Euros, whatever expansion plans the club have, even just seeing three group games bringing millions into the economy, we will see where it goes from there.”
Though difficult to measure, the tourism sector believes there has been a palpable change in the atmosphere since Newcastle United was taken over and the club’s fortunes on the pitch changed dramatically. Ian said: “You can see it, you can hear it in the city already, you hear different accents and languages being spoken; you can see people taking photos outside next to the statues and just that uptick in interest in the place.
“Obviously it’s quite hard to see the next stage because capacity is capacity at the stadium, so it’s hard for additional tickets to be made available. I think for us in the city it’s what can you wrap around that, what are the additional tours, what are the other things we can do in a fanzone – how do we engage with that?”
The Fanzone is a similar idea to City Square, outside the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, which had food and drink, TV screens and an outdoor covered stage aimed at enhancing the matchday experience for supporters and visitors. However, that has now closed for the 23/24 season as a new Fanzone is built as part of a £300m expansion to the Etihad.
Nevertheless, Ian pointed to the growth of Manchester’s economy following the City takeover in 2008, and hopes that Newcastle will see a similar result.
He said: “You look at what happened in Manchester, after the Manchester City takeover it added 1% to the GDP of the city in terms of international visitors coming in. In terms of the investment, 1% doesn’t sound that big but that’s a significant impact to the local economy. We’re already seeing searches for Newcastle on our website, much more global reach that we hadn’t seen before.
After the Champions League draw, the NGI website saw a 300% increase in German visitors searching for what to do in Newcastle, and a 250% increase from Italian and French visitors. He continued: “You can see quickly that there’s a spike and even if that doesn’t translate this season to people coming, they’re looking at Newcastle which they probably wouldn’t have done had that draw not been made.”
And the Champions League could boost the city’s tourism sector indirectly, as games will be moved to Sundays for Newcastle United’s European schedule. Ian said: “One of the times hotels would traditionally struggle would be on a Sunday night. But the more games that get moved for TV, the more we’ll see visitors in the city on a Sunday. And we’ll then see an impact on hotel occupancy.”
Of course, it is impossible to ignore that Newcastle United’s turnaround has come as a result of a controversial takeover by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, with a protest taking place ahead of Saudi Arabia’s home friendly against Costa Rica on Friday night.
Ian said: “For us, it was a decision taken by the Premier League – they ratified it. It’s our job to make sure we maximise the potential of the club’s success and the opportunities that brings for the region, and as an organisation, it’s not our position to get involved in anything else.”
