Direct expenditure of MICE delegates in U.K. rose by £1.9 billion in 2018, UKCAMS

Thursday, July 18, 2019

The direct expenditure generated by conference and meeting delegates in the U.K. in 2018 stood at 20 billion pounds. It marked an increase of 1.9 billion pounds as compared to 2017.

There was a new research into the meetings sector of U.K. called ‘UK Conference and Meeting Survey 2019’ (UKCAMS). It showed an average of 428 conferences and meetings per venue compared with 373 in 2017 and 419 in 2016.

As per the research findings also reveal that the overall number of conferences and meetings in 2018 was an estimated 1.48 million compared with the 2017 figure of 1.29 million (and 1.45 million in 2016). The average event size was 72 delegates, the same as for 2017.

As per Kerrin MacPhie, VisitBritain’s head of business events, The U.K. is home to many world-renowned venues that consistently host leading international events.

VisitBritain recognises the importance of the ICCA ranking as a key tool in achieving success. The UKCAMS research results show that more can be done by U.K. venues to record ICCA activity. VisitBritain strongly encourages them to consistently log their international ICCA events.

Levels of capital investment by venues remained strong with 73% of venues reporting that they had invested in their property in 2018, with 17% investing over £500,000.

As per the report, there were an estimated 95.3 million delegates accounting for about 152.8 million delegate days in 2018.

The average duration of conferences and meetings was 1.6 days. Conference and training centres (640 events) and hotels (453 events) hosted higher than average numbers of events.

The research was carried out by Tony Rogers Conference & Event Services and Richard Smith of RJS Associates, on behalf of VisitBritain, The Meetings Show, venuedirectory.com, Visit Guildford for Business and Hiscox Event Insurance.

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