NOW for the good news. After the gloom of reports of a downturn in leisure tourism spending in York, the city's conference market is booming.

Since April the York Tourism Bureau conference desk has taken bookings for £400,000-worth of events, compared with £208,000 over the same period last year.

At the same time, new inquiries have increased by 45 per cent over the same comparable periods.

These are figures taken from bookings and inquiries at the bureau's conference desk alone, which is thought to represent only about five per cent of all conference bookings taken for York.

The boom goes some way to countering disappointment that visitor spending in general tourism was down £1.1 million to £283.6 million over the year, with a slump in food and drink and on visitor attractions, even though visitor numbers rose 75,000 to 3.95 million.

The increased conference spending could be due, in part, to a more intensive marketing drive, including more use of the internet, using targeted databases to send out regular special conference offers in the city by email.

York Tourism Bureau also has a joint website with other British historic cities.

Kate McMullen, the bureau's conference marketing manager, said conference bookings were mostly by UK businesses or organisations and were not as affected by nervousness when it came to travel.

General tourism had been affected by cheap flights to Prague or Amsterdam, or interest rates, whereas businesses seeking conference venues were not and "they are often necessary gatherings that have to take place come what may".

Kate said: "It is true that conference meetings nowadays tend to be shorter. What were three day events five or six years ago tend to be two or one-and-a-half now, but volumes are up.

"Some of the new business we are seeing for 2006/2007 are association as well as business conferences.

"For instance, both the Society of Bookbinders and the Royal Statistical Society have both chosen York for their 2007 conferences.

"These are the kinds of bookings we love because delegates tend to bring their spouses or families and the spend on leisure in the city is high, but there are long lead booking times for associations whereas corporate bookings tend to be faster, securing space in October or November this year. It's a matter of getting the balance between the two."

Updated: 12:53 Friday, August 19, 2005