HOTEL managers from the North-East are heading South in a bid to sell the region's potential as a major conference venue.

With new venues springing up every month the region is establishing itself as a major rival of traditional conference settings elsewhere in Britain.

Hotel bosses have organised a mission from Tyneside to London next week, with the group meeting more than 100 London-based national and international conference organisers to give them a taste of the welcome waiting in the North-East.

Debrah Duggha, business development manager at Malmaison in Newcastle said: "Many national and international conferences are held in other parts of the country but there is no reason why they couldn't be staged in the North-East.

"Major conferences are planned two or three years ahead so the timing is right now to take what we have to offer to the agents in London who influence the decisions."

Already this year Newcastle United has extended its conference facility at St James' Park to a capacity of 4,500. Durham City's new Millennium Hall will hold up to 1,000 people and the new Music Centre in Gateshead will be able to hold up to 1,650.

Neil Rami, chief executive of the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative, leading the promotion of the joint bid for 2008 European Capital of Culture status, said: "We have first class hotels, excellent air, rail, road and sea links and a world famous welcome to offer."