It has been interesting during the past few weeks meeting with people who are responsible for marketing and promoting their towns and cities. The tourism and visitor economy has become big business in the UK, and every local and regional asset is used to help drive people nationally and internationally to destinations that they may never have considered before.

The growing importance of this sector is demonstrated clearly by Liverpool’s investment into this market. Since the successful hosting of the European Capital of Culture in 2008 the city has become the best visited location in the country outside of London and Edinburgh.

Tourism is big business and every city and county wants a slice of the action.

In both Yorkshire and Lancashire much has been happening to promote the white rose and red rose brands. Lancashire has just enjoyed a very good Preston Guild year and will be attempting to build momentum in 2013 with a series of legacy events, whilst in Leeds we have seen the opening of the new Trinity retail centre, and look forward to the new arena later in the year and the Tour De France in 2014.

However, if you talk to hotels, bars and restaurants – or indeed tourism marketers – they will bemoan the absence from Yorkshire and Lancashire of a product that has become one of the country’s most successful exports: Premier League football.

Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley and Bolton (officially Greater Manchester but Lancashire to all who live there) have enjoyed life in the big league, as have the two Sheffield clubs and of course Leeds United. Sadly, no more.

It is incredible to me that we have no prospect of any of these clubs being promoted to the top division this season, and I fear that Blackburn may be heading into real trouble and League One with owners who, to put it kindly, appear out of their depth.

What has this to do with business? Well, the economic benefit to the service sector is enormous when Premier League football is in town. Equally the global exposure your city gets around the globe when a local team is involved is massively valuable. 

Let’s hope that next season both Yorkshire and Lancashire clubs can begin to perform on the football field the way the marketing teams are performing to promote both counties. Despite the lack of Premier League football, both are enjoying a boost in the increasingly important tourism sector.

Downtown Lancashire will continue its ‘Big Conversation’ next week during our fifth annual Business Week.

On Monday, Mick Lovett from Preston City Council will lead a discussion on how the city is responding to the disappointment of the loss of Tithebarn, and we will be looking forward to the Guild activities in August and beyond, and what opportunities exist beyond 2012. On Wednesday afternoon, the focus will be on high growth companies and entrepreneurs. How do we identify them, and how can we support them?

Downtown sponsors Winning Pitch facilitated a trip to Silicon Valley recently, and we’ll be hearing from some of those who went along, as well as talking to business owners who are experiencing great success, despite the challenging times in which we are currently experiencing.

Sandwiched between these two events is a forum on the business of football, which will be chaired by our first major signing of the new season, Michael Taylor, former editor of Insider magazine. Given the incredible £3 billion Premier League deal announced this week, it is a timely event, and I will be interested to learn what people like panellist Rob Heyes, the Chief Executive of Accrington Stanley, think about it.

As always, there will be plenty of opportunity for event delegates to have their say too, and I look forward to seeing plenty of you during next week. Can I also remind you to complete our business survey if you haven’t done so already. It will take you no more than five minutes, and the data will be presented to the Local Enterprise Partnership in the Autumn. Please visit www.theredrosebusinesssurvey.co.uk to have your say.

It is that time of the football season when supporters at the top and bottom of their respective leagues spend more time than is either healthy or rational looking at league tables and their clubs remaining fixtures.

If you are United or City, then you are experiencing an exciting nervousness that most fans would give their right arm for. But if your team is facing relegation then the terminology first used by Sir Alex Ferguson, is most certainly apt. What supporters of three North West teams face between now and the seasons end is officially known as ‘squeaky bum’ time.

Wigan, Bolton and Lancashire’s own Blackburn Rovers all face the prospect of dropping out of the financially lucrative Premier League, and it is difficult to imagine any of them bouncing back quickly.

It is possible that two of the three will be relegated, along with Wolves who look certain for the drop now, and that would be a blow not only to the respective clubs but to the region’s economy too. Many studies prove that Premier League football generates economic benefits to localities, and Blackburn, Wigan and Bolton would all suffer as towns should they lose the privilege of hosting top flight football matches.

Not only do you lose the income that is spent in the hospitality and service sectors, you also lose the huge amount of profile you get when a match is featured on TV. Burnley waxes lyrical about the boost the town received to its profile during its season among the football elite.

It should also be remembered that clubs employ more than players and coaching staff, and any reduction in their income inevitably leads to a reduction in their staffing compliment.

So, not simply for the sake of their supporters, but for the North West economy and job market too, good luck Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan for the remainder of the season. Let’s hope that QPR and Villa slip into the bottom three and you all survive!

Roberto Mancini must have had very mixed feelings on Saturday afternoon as his Manchester City team bagged an impressive 6-1 victory over Norwich City, courtesy of a hat-trick from the man he said would never play for him again, Carlos Tevez.

The inevitable subject of football phone-in’s this week, and the football debates around the city, have been all about Tevez. Had he not been allowed to go on his extended golfing holiday to Argentina, would it be the Blues now, rather than the Reds, who would be sitting pretty at the top of the Premiership with a five point advantage?

It is easy in hindsight to say Mancini got it wrong regarding the Tevez affair. After all, City fans were outraged by his seeming refusal to come on as a substitute in that fateful Champions League game last year. However, Mancini is not a fan. He is paid a significant salary to not get emotionally involved in the sort of stuff that infuriates supporters, and a more experienced manager would maybe have handled things differently.

Indeed, there is no maybe about it. Last season Mancunians will remember a certain Wayne Rooney, or more accurately his agent, very publicly expressing the view that Man United had lost their way, and that Wayne was looking for another club. Many speculated that a deal had already been done - with Man City! United fans were up in arms. How could a player that had been treated so well by their club betray them in such a fashion. He should be drummed out of Old Trafford!

Sir Alex Ferguson took a slightly different attitude, sat Rooney down for a chat, got him to sign a new contract, and they both went on to help claim their teams nineteenth League success.   

That they are likely to make that twenty within the next few weeks is not simply because Mancini got it wrong over Tevez. The City Manager has been consistently inconsistent in his man management of Mario Balottelli. For example, straight after the Arsenal game, in which the enigmatic striker was red carded, Mancini said he would not play for City again this season. Days later he was suggesting that Balotelli could be City’s match winner against United in the forthcoming ‘Derby’.  I’m not convinced, either, that saying to the press that you would like to give one of your players a dig is the best motivational ploy in the world. Actually giving them a dig is probably more productive.

Worst of all, Mancini went head-to-head with Fergie. Worse still, he went head-to-head with Fergie over Paul Scholes.

Nobody beats the Old Trafford boss when it comes to psychological warfare. Ask Kevin ‘I’d just love it if we beat them’ Keegan or Rafael ‘the facts’ Benitez. Throw Paul Scholes in the mix, and not only do you rile the best manager in the country unnecessarily, but you provide additional motivation to an individual who needs little motivation, and likewise wind up his team mates.

City supporters I speak to are split over whether Mancini should stay or go should he fail to deliver the title. Having been in such a strong position at Christmas time, having spent so much money, and up against a United side that is one of the poorest Ferguson has had during his tenure, then there is a case for the Italian to be given the bullet.

Others argue that Mancini needs time in order to gain the experience. They point to the fact that the master himself, Ferguson, has only become the master because United gave him time.

If you look at Chelsea you cannot have any doubt that ‘managerial musical chairs’ do not win you the Premier League. For me, I’d give Mancini another season.

You never know, he may win it this time around – but I doubt it!

Like many Evertonians I left Wembley Stadium on Saturday afternoon disappointed, but not surprised, by yet another defeat at the hands of our old enemy Liverpool.

Despite the fact that Everton went into the game as the ‘form’ team, the club with what we are told are key ingredients for football success, confidence and momentum, and against a side that even their own supporters recognise as mediocre, Everton, and in particular manager David Moyes, has an inferiority complex when it comes to the Reds.

Moyes is recognised as one of the brightest British coaches in the game, and his achievements at Everton, a club that has struggled to find the financial muscle that will enable it to compete at the highest level of English football, have been acknowledged by fellow managers, who have awarded him the Manager of the Year gong on several occasions, and by football pundits alike.

However his failure to win a trophy during his ten year tenure at Goodison Park, and his consistent under-performance against Liverpool, most particularly the latest capitulation, perhaps explains why he has never and will never be offered a job with one of the major spenders in the English game.

When it comes to the huge occasion, he bottles it. As underdogs, Everton have turned over Man City (regularly), Man United and Arsenal (but only at Goodison), and Chelsea.

However, the Blues failed to turn up for their last Wembley encounter, the FA Cup Final of 2009, and even against a much weakend Man United team at the same stadium and in the same year in the Semi Final, Everton only scraped through on penalties.

In Europe Moyes’ record is, quite simply, woeful.

For me Moyes is a decent motivator and when he is confident and up for it, so too is his team. However, when he is lacking in confidence and nervous this also transmits to his team, and the results of this were all too evident on Saturday. He does not have the ability of a Ferguson or a Clough to take the pressure from his team. Indeed, he unintentionally does the exact opposite at times.

This is why Moyes is at the right club at the right time. Joe Royle had saved Everton from relegation and won the FA Cup in 1995, only to find himself sacked for languishing in mid table two years later (Royle never lost a Merseyside ‘Derby’ either). Previous Everton managers were given an average of four years to win a title before being shown the exit. Nowadays, expectations at Goodison are somewhat lower, and Moyes regularly exceeds them. Could he do that at Man United, Chelsea or even Spurs? No, he most certainly couldn’t. 

Many Evertonians would be happy to see the back of Moyes at the end of this season, citing his negative tactics and his squandering of the best chance we have ever had of defeating Liverpool at Wembley last weekend. I can sympathise to a point, but who would you put in his place, and would they take the job?    

For now, and the foreseeable future, Everton and Moyes are a good combination. They should both recognise that, look forward to next season, and employ Joe Royle as a ‘Derby’ day mentor for team and manager in the 2012/13 campaign.