The ICC Wales, a joint venture between the Welsh Government and Celtic Manor Resort, will provide 26,000 sq m of total floorspace for meetings, conferences and exhibitions when it opens in Newport this summer.

The facility beside the M4 will be able to accommodate 5,000 conference delegates and there will be a 1,500-seat auditorium and 4,000 sq m exhibition hall.

Estimates suggest that the ICC could bring £70 million into the Welsh economy each year. New hotel developments have been springing up in Wales’s third largest city to accommodate an expected upsurge in visitors.

Key to the long-term success of the project will be the construction of the £1.4 billion M4 relief road, south of Newport, which has been mooted for many years.

Carys Allen, Surveyor, National Capital Markets, at Colliers International in the South West and Wales, says the completion of the centre, together with the recent scrapping of the Severn Bridge tolls, would bring a major economic boost to South Wales – with Bristol still yet to deliver on its own arena project.