BOLTON hoteliers held a meeting in London in a bid to boost tourism and trade in the borough.

The M61 Meetings Group, which was set up in February to encourage more conferences and training courses, used the event to explain to firms the benefits of coming to the town.

The group is made up of eight hotels, spearheaded by the newly-opened De Vere Whites Hotel at the Reebok Stadium.

John Gallery, group secretariat for M61 said: "We got some very positive feedback, showing businesses that they could benefit hugely from coming north.

"We have conference facilities in both rural and built up areas which would be useful for any firm or organisation."

The group has hotels based around the M61 north of Manchester.

Local hotels include the Jarvis International at Blackrod, Bolton Moat House, the Last Drop Village, Egerton House, the New Pack Horse, Holiday Inn Express, Post House, Bolton and the Marriott at Worsley.

Between them they offer 1,000 bedrooms and more than 120 meeting suites.

Representatives from each of the three to four star hotels met at London's Marriott Country Hotel.

They spoke about the easy motorway access each hotel had benefited from and said the area was " a greater part of Greater Manchester."

Mr Gallery said: "The idea of the meeting was to take the area to London. I think we managed to convince people that travelling up here would be worth their while."