Business visits & events
The business visits and events sector is incredibly diverse, covering trade fairs, conferences and congresses, outdoor and entertainment events as well as business tourism.
From 22 May we will be working to update all of the data and documents on this page following the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revision of the International Passenger Survey (IPS) data for 2009-2018 and the released detailed 2019 data. Please be patient as we update these pages or contact the VisitBritain research team if you have any questions- VB/VEResearch@visitbritain.org. Thank you.
Understanding Business Visits
Business visits accounted for 22% of all inbound visits in 2018, with 8.4 million such visits, and contributed £4.5 billion in spend. Read our latest foresight report ‘Understanding Business Visits’ (PDF, 866KB) to explore the business sub category data in more detail.
Some key highlights from the report show there were 3.3 million visits were made to attend small and medium sized meetings (up to 20 people), while close to 1.5 million MICE visits were made to attend a large meeting (21+ people), a conference, convention or congress, an incentive or team building events, or an exhibition, event or trade show.
Regional breakdown of visits are provided, with London continuing to lead in terms of share of visits, nights and spend for business visits to the UK overall, and for MICE visits.
Business visits by market
The latest annual data from the International Passenger Survey is available below. View data for visits, nights, and spend of business visitors, as well as filter visits by age, gender, season, mode of transport, length of stay for the last full year of data. We also have latest quarterly data available for the whole of the UK, for the nations and regions of Britain and annual trends by area where you can filter by journey purpose (including business visits).
Business visits to the UK by event type
In 2018 VisitBritain sponsored an additional question on the International Passenger Survey to understand the breakdown of the business visits into more detailed categories, namely: Meetings of 1-5 people, Meetings of 6-20 people, Large Meetings of 21+ people, Conferences Conventions and Congress, Training and Development, Exhibition, Events and Trade Shows, Incentive and Team Building and Other. We have also separated lorry drivers from the ‘Other’ category.
Type of business visits to the UK by overseas residents, 2018
|
Business Event Type |
Visits (000) | Nights (000) | Spend (£m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meeting 1-5 people | 1,923 | 5,592 | £977 |
| Meeting 6-20 people | 1,411 | 4,372 | £942 |
| MICE including: | 1,461 | 6,753 | £1,126 |
| - Meeting 21+ people | 467 | 2,115 | £349 |
| - Incentive/Team Building | 70 | 678 | £62 |
| - Conference/ Convention/ Congress | 568 | 2,386 | £415 |
| - Exhibition/ Event/ Trade Show | 356 | 1,563 | £299 |
| Training/ Development | 490 | 3,225 | £457 |
| Lorry driving | 2,048 | 4,490 | £186 |
| Other | 894 | 8,939 | £679 |
| Don't Know | 220 | 1,039 | £144 |
| ALL BUSINESS VISITS | 8,448 | 34,411 | £4,512 |
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It is not recommended to use this data. You may find it helpful to consider looking at three year averages, or widening results by selecting fewer categories
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Use this data with caution as results are indicative. You may find it helpful to consider looking at three year averages, or widening results by selecting fewer categories
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Number of visits
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Further resources
As part of the Discover England Fund, additional research has been completed to further understand the decision making process (PDF, 2.7MB) when selecting a meeting or conference location as well as awareness and consideration of British cities. Published July 2017
An additional report is also available on delegate expenditure and business extenders (PDF, 2.7MB) (delegates who extend their trip for leisure). Published January 2018
And another report looks at the China MICE Market (PDF, 12.7 MB). It provides key insights to understand the characteristics of the Chinese meetings and incentives market. Published September 2018
Activities undertaken by business visitors
View data on how many business visitors participated in various activities when they came to the UK in 2017 (XLS, 449KB), including going to the theatre or visiting a park. Published November 2018
Each year we ask about different activites so check our sponsor questions (XLS, 180KB).
A full dataset of activites that can be filtered to business visitors can be found on our dedicated activities page.
