Edinburgh Convention Bureau

Business tourism in Scotland

1. Business tourism is worth £911m to Scotland, and accounts for 22% of total tourism spend.
2. The UK accounts for 75% of business tourism expenditure in Scotland.
3. The main overseas markets for business tourism to Scotland are the USA (18% of overseas business tourism spend) followed by Spain (9%) and Germany (7%).
4. Spend per night by visitors is 80% higher than that of leisure visitors.
   30% of all international association conferences held in the UK are hosted by Scotland.
5. Both UIA and ICCA rank Edinburgh and Glasgow second only to London in the UK, in terms of number of meetings - Edinburgh currently ranks 23rd and Glasgow 33rd in the world (Jan 2007)

Business tourism in Edinburgh

1. Business tourism is worth an estimated £300 million to the economy of Edinburgh and the Lothians each year.
2. Tourism in Edinburgh generates £1.6 billion annually and sustains over 30,000 jobs.
3. Edinburgh is the most popular city in the UK in which to hold an international association meeting. Glasgow is in third place.
4. Edinburgh and Glasgow, between them, account for 95% of all international associations meetings in Scotland.

Edinburgh Convention Bureau

1. The Edinburgh Convention Bureau (ECB) is the lead agency responsible for marketing and organising Edinburgh and the Lothians as a premier conference, incentive and event destination.
   
2. The ECB generated £68.5 million for the local economy in 2006.
   
3. The ECB is a membership organisation representing over 130 members in the meetings and incentives industry.
   
4. The ECB provides conference organisers with information on conference venues, accommodation, transport, social programmes, conference support services and pre and post conference tours.
   
5. The Edinburgh Ambassadors Programme has over 1400 ambassadors representing all major academic and commercial fields in which Edinburgh has an international reputation.
   
6. Since 1996, the Edinburgh Ambassador Programme has attracted over 200 major conferences to Edinburgh, which have brought over £90 million in revenue to the city.
   
7. Edinburgh is a founder member of the international BestCities.net, a strategic alliance of global convention bureaux, which aims to guarantee the meetings industry the world's best service experience in each of the member cities (Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver).
   
8. Of the conferences and events secured by the ECB and taking place in the city during 2006, 23% were in non-residential venues, 38% in hotels, 15% in universities and 24% at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre
   
9. The value of bookings placed by our Conference Accommodation Bookings Service (CABS) with our accommodation members in 2006-07 was £1.2m.
   
10. Recent delegate research conducted by ELTB & ECB found that over 69% of delegates would not have come to Edinburgh had their event not been held here. 32% say they will definitely return to visit Edinburgh on a leisure break in the next 2-3 years and 62% say they will probably visit in the future.
    
11. The new meetingedinburgh website (opens in new window), our online interactive Request For Proposal system, generated an economic impact of over £630,000 in its first year of operation.
    
    Looking for further information? Please call us on 0131-473 3666 or email info@conventionedinburgh.com