Business Tourism – UK

1. Business tourism in the UK continues to grow from strength and is now worth in excess of £22 billion in terms of its wider economic impact through associated delegate expenditure including travel, entertainment, shopping, pre/post conference activities
2. Business tourism is the fastest growing sector in world tourism and represents 28% of inbound tourism into the UK
3. Business tourism expenditure from overseas contributed £4.6 billion, representing 28% of global inbound spend (2008) 
4. The UK is the 5th most popular destination for international association meetings, after the USA, Germany, Spain and Italy
5. Around 513,000 people are employed  full-time in the business tourism sector, both directly and indirectly

Business Tourism – Scotland

1. 2.47 million business trips were made to Scotland in 2009
2. Business tourism is worth £827m annually to Scotland and accounts for 20% of total tourism spend (2009)
3. Spend per night by business visitors is 1.9 times higher than that of leisure visitors
4. Scotland hosts 29% of all international association conferences held in the UK (up from 25% in 2008/09)

Business Tourism – Edinburgh

1. The economic value of business tourism to Edinburgh city region is estimated  to be in excess of £300m per annum
2. Edinburgh is the most popular UK city after London for hosting international association meetings Glasgow is in third place
3. In the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) world rankings for international association meetings Edinburgh is 36th and Glasgow 49th (2009)
4. Edinburgh was ranked first in a ‘value for money’ survey of ten world class conference destinations commissioned by VisitBritain (2009)
5. Edinburgh voted Favourite UK City for the tenth year running in Guardian/Observer Travel Awards 2009
6. Edinburgh crowned 'the best small city of the future’ by fDi Magazine's European Cities & Regions 2008/09 and 2010/11
7. Edinburgh is a centre of excellence for tourism, science & technology, medicine, higher education and finance
8. Edinburgh Airport is Scotland’s largest airport and the sixth busiest in the UK, operating to over 100 destinations with 40 airlines
9. Tourism in Edinburgh generates £1.6 billion annually and sustains over 30,000 jobs

Edinburgh Convention Bureau Ltd (ECB)

1. ECB is the lead organisation responsible for promoting Edinburgh and Lothians as a premier conference, incentive and event destination
2. ECB provides professional and tailored advice on bid preparation, venue finding, accommodation and all conference services at no charge
3. In 2009/10 over 80% of ECB’s bids were successful
4. ECB secured £74.2m of economic benefit for the city region in 2009/10
5. ECB supported 257 meetings during 2009/10, attended by over 58,000 delegates
6. ECB is a membership organisation representing over 150 industry members including venues, attractions, transport providers and conference organisers
7. The value of business placed with accommodation members in 2009/10 via ECB’s Conference Accommodation Bookings Service (CABS) was £1.39m
8. The Edinburgh Ambassadors Programme has over 1,400 ambassadors representing all major academic and commercial fields in which Edinburgh has an international reputation
9. Around 70% of association meetings are secured via the ECB’s award-winning Edinburgh Ambassador Programme which since 1996 has helped bring more than 210 major conferences, worth almost £100 million in revenue to the city
10. Of the conferences and events secured by the ECB and taking place in the city during 2009/10, 87% were association meetings
11. Edinburgh is a founder member of the BestCities Global Alliance, the first global convention bureaux alliance committed to delivering the world’s best service experience for meeting & event planners in each of the member cities (Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore, Vancouver). See www.bestcities.net
12. In a tourism survey 69% of conference delegates reported they would not have come to Edinburgh on a leisure break had their conference not been held in the city.  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
13. The introduction of ECB’s interactive website www.meetingedinburgh.com   (believed to be the first of its kind for any convention bureau in the world) saw a 10% increase in Request For Proposals (RFP). Conversions delivered an economic impact of over £2m for ECB members during 2009/10
14. Another first is ECB’s new Experience Edinburgh website www.experienceedinburgh.org , piloted in 2008/09 and designed to encourage delegates to extend their stay by offering easy online information. The number of suppliers participating increased by 100% in 2009/10