Meeting Industry Generates £5.6 Billion For London Economy

New research published today highlights London’s leading role in the UK’s meeting industry and how the sector, in one year alone, has generated £5.6 billion for London’s economy through business meetings - the equivalent to a 30 per cent share of England’s meetings. The study also found that as an industry the meetings sector is three times greater than agriculture to the country’s economy and bigger than other sectors such as legal services and broadcasting.

The UK Economic Impact Study is the most extensive survey yet of the economic impact of the UK meeting industry and was commissioned by the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Foundation, and undertaken by the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality (ICRETH) at Leeds Metropolitan University. The research reveals that the UK meeting industry delivers £58.4 billion to the UK’s Gross Domestic Product – a contribution three times greater than agriculture to the country’s economy. The meeting industry is the 16th largest employer in the UK with more than 515,000 individuals directly employed, and including indirect employment the industry supports more than 1 million full time jobs.

Leading the meeting industry in the UK, £5.6 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) is generated by the sector in London – over 30 per cent of the UK’s total of £18.57 billion.

Welcoming the report, CEO of London & Partners, Gordon Innes, said:

“This important research highlights the central role the meeting industry plays to London’s economy, with over 362,000 meetings taking place this year across 2,709 venues. London offers unrivalled venues with the facilities to accommodate a wide range of events including, the soon to be reopened Copper Box located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which will become a multi-use sports venue.

“In addition, the sizeable growth we have seen as a result of the Olympics in London’s hotel capacity has added to the City’s attraction as a meeting venue. Last year we saw 60 new hotel openings adding a total of 7,700 rooms to London’s hotel stock. Putting this in context, London now has over 110,00 hotel rooms across the City.

“We now look forward to welcoming even more new business to our world class venues and the continuing growth of this vital sector.”
Notes to Editors

All figures detailed are taken from the full report can be accessed here: http://www.mpiweb.org/UKEIS/ReportFinal

UK Economic Impact Study headline results:

Total Gross Value Added (GVA) by the meetings industry in London in 2011 was £5.6 billion.

London ranks first in GVA by the meetings industry among UK cities, ahead of Edinburgh: £601 million; Cardiff: £587 million; Liverpool: £289 million; Belfast £128 million.

More than 1.3 million meetings were held in the UK in 2011 in more than 10,000 venues.

Attendees spent just under £40 billion attending UK meetings.

Meeting organisers staged on average 147 events in the year and



About the MPI Foundation

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Foundation is passionately committed to bringing vision and prosperity to the meeting and event community worldwide by investing in results-oriented initiatives and programs that shape the future and bring success to the industry. MPI is the largest and most vibrant global meeting and event industry association, comprised of approximately 20,000 members belonging to 71 chapters and clubs worldwide. For more information, visit www.mpiweb.org/foundation.



About ICRETH

The International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality (ICRETH) at Leeds Metropolitan University undertakes high quality research ethically and disseminates the findings through research reports, articles and books, bespoke programmes of continuing professional development, consultancy, short courses and specialist events. In addition to University investment, research is funded by various international, national and local agencies or businesses. In recent years, these have been as diverse as the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), European Commission, Meeting Professionals International (MPI), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT), United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), and government departments, NGOs in various European, African and Asian countries, sports governing bodies and private companies. If you would like to discuss projects of mutual interest please email: r.thomas@leedsmet.ac.uk or visit our web site for further details of our work www.leedsmet.ac.uk/icreth