Following the success of last year's first ever national conference for marketing visitor attractions, the second annual event will be held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on Tuesday 4th July, and David Leon, managing director of York-based Partners Leisure Ltd, part of The Partners Group, will once again be in the chair.

Attractions Marketing 2006 is a one-day event that will bring together marketing professionals from many of the UK's top tourist attractions to hear presentations from some of the best marketing minds in the country on topics including; website optimisation and what makes an award-winning website, effective e-marketing techniques, best practice in attraction leaflet design, branding and market research.

David Leon has been invited to chair the national attractions marketing conference for the second year running.

David Leon established Partners Leisure Ltd two years ago as an associate company of York marketing communications and design firm, The Partners Group. Partners Leisure currently provides marketing services for a range of leisure and visitor attractions UK-wide, including English Heritage, Crich Tramway Village and York Maze, which won the York Tourism Bureau marketing campaign of the year award in 2005.

David will draw on 15 years' experience in leisure attractions to provide an overview of the industry and what makes for good marketing in the attractions sector.

He says: "The quality of UK attractions has come a long way in the last 10 years, there are now more days-out opportunities than ever before. This is good news for the consumer but the increased competition makes it increasingly difficult for attractions to thrive. Yorkshire has had its fair share of failures, The Earth Centre in Doncaster and The National Centre for Popular music in Sheffield were two high profile ones. Sadly there will be more attractions that go out of business simply because they do not understand and respond to a changing market.

"This conference provides a fantastic opportunity for those with the responsibility for marketing their attractions to network with their peers, share best practice, hear about the latest ideas and technologies and learn from people who are at the top of their fields."

The conference is organised by Martin Evans of The Tourism Business with support from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Tourism Society, "Travel GBI" magazine and VisitBritain.

For more information about the conference visit www.attractionsmarketing.co.uk or call 01904 438100.

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