​Business leaders have been told of the importance of supporting the city’s growing creative sector – which is now said to generate more money even than the tourism and retail industries.

Creative Bath chair Greg Ingham, who was guest of honour at the first Bath Chronicle Business Breakfast of 2010, said the sector was forever growing in the city, bringing in £800 million a year.

He discussed the importance of Creative Bath, which was set up to bring figures and talent throughout the sector.

Mr Ingham, chief executive of publishing firm MediaClash, said Creative Bath had attracted more than 750 members from areas including advertising, architecture, fashion, the performing arts and video.

Providing keynote speakers, social events and bringing together creative companies so they can share information, the umbrella organisation aims to act as a voice for Bath’s creative industries, identifying and articulating its needs.

Mr Ingham told the event at the Bath Spa Hotel that new research had established the true value of the sector: “We all know how important tourism is to the city – we perhaps wish that more of it was more engaged tourism – but nevertheless it is an incredibly important part of the city’s wealth.

“We also know how important retail is to the city but, if you put together the aggregate value of tourism and retail, it is less important than the creative industries.

“Creative industries contribute £800 million to this city and that is an extraordinary figure.

“We knew it was going to be a significant figure but we had no idea it was going to be that high.”

The business organisation GWE Business West says almost 7,000 people in Bath and North East Somerset work in the creative industry and has come up with the £800 million figure.

Mr Ingham is chairman of the Theatre Royal and praised the historic venue for its contribution to the growth of the arts world in Bath.

He said: “The theatre was built in 1805 and more than 200 years later, through innovation and through drive, it is now a major national and international success.

“It has four plays this year which will go on to the West End and no other theatre can say that.”

Mr Ingham, who is the former managing director and chief executive of Future Publishing, said he decided to set up Creative Bath after speaking to various organisations in the city who knew nothing of each other’s existence. He said he thought then that it was important to create a network where these people could communicate with one another.

He added: “It is critical to this city’s future that it does actually invest, promote and help generate creative industries. This is a city which is rooted in creativity.”

To find out more, go to www.creativebath.org.