Marketing Manchester and NYC & Company have signed a city-to-city tourism collaboration agreement.

Formalised at a press conference at Cultureplex in Manchester, the new two-year alliance includes a collaboration agreement between the two cities, the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing and a partnership with Virgin Atlantic to stimulate reciprocal travel.

Marketing Manchester managing director, Sheona Southern, was joined by NYC & Company president, Fred Dixon, and Virgin Atlantic’s head of brand strategy and campaigns, Hai Bei Chen, for the announcement. 

“I’m incredibly proud that Marketing Manchester has been able to secure what is undoubtedly a very powerful partnership with NYC & Company.

“New York City is one of the top tourism destinations in the world and to be able to align ourselves with a city that we have so much in common with – especially in respect to being open, diverse and welcome destinations – is a huge coup and speaks volumes about Manchester’s increasing global profile,” said Southern.

The partnership comes as Virgin Atlantic increases services between the two cities.

Now flying its largest aircraft on the Manchester to JFK route, the Boeing 747, Virgin Atlantic is increasing capacity out of Manchester to New York by 65 per cent this winter.

Dixon added: “It’s a pleasure to announce our newest tourism marketing partnership with one of the United Kingdom’s most important northern England cities.

“Both destinations are capitals of diversity and iconic hubs of arts and culture, sports and media.

“We believe there is outstanding potential to further develop joint tourism opportunities between Manchester and New York City.”

Currently, NYC & Company has several other active city-to-city tourism partnerships across the globe including Madrid, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Toronto, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Berlin.

Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, commented: “We’re incredibly proud to be part of this partnership and look forward to working with NYC & Company and Marketing Manchester to drive more customers travelling between Manchester and New York City.”