Industry Research

This report from VisitBritain, commissioned from Deloitte with Oxford Economics as sub-contractors.  As well as highlighting tourism's central role in creating new jobs across Britain, findings include:

· The tourism economy is set to grow 3.8% per annum – faster than manufacturing, construction and retail

· It is currently worth £127bn – growing to £257bn by 2025 - 10% of UK GDP

· It has supported 3m jobs throughout the UK in 2013 (9.6% of UK employment)

· It accounted for one third of the net increase in UK jobs between 2010 and 2012 (175,000 additional jobs) - and is forecast to support 3.7m jobs by 2025

· Inbound tourism is the driving force of growth and is forecast to grow from over £21bn in 2013 to £57bn by 2025.Inbound tourism is already one of Britain's top export industries and its record performance since the London 2012 Olympics bodes well for the future.

UK Music and VisitBritain have for the first time identified the value of international and domestic music tourism to the UK economy in a new Oxford Economics report tracking visitor numbers and their spending patterns at Britain's many thousands of gigs and world famous festivals.

The UK Economic Impact Study presents a milestone in the history of the UK meeting industry, calculating for the first time the sector's value to the UK economy. It is, to date, the most comprehensive assessment of the economic impact of the industry on the British economy.

Here is an excerpt of the Final Report (23 pgs.) available to download by clicking on the right button: 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, and most meetings took place in London, the South East and the West Midlands. After England, Scotland took the lead in hosting the largest number of meetings. Whilst large hotels hosted most meetings, unusual and unique venues proved popular for conference organisers, and small hotels more popular for incentive events. Corporate clients hosted the vast majority of events, with many (more than 60%) favouring smaller meetings of less than 100 people. Meeting organisers staged on average 147 events in the year and received £11 billion from hosting meetings in the UK and £1.4 billion from hosting meetings outside the UK.

The profile summary and Frequently Asked Questions are avaiable here.

In 2005, KMPG and Oxford Economics produced a study estimating the economic impact of the UK exhibitions industry on the UK economy. In 2011, Oxford Economics were commissioned by Vivid Interface to update the findings of the 2005 study and provide an estimate for the economic impact of the exhibitions sector on the UK economy in 2010. The study was published in February 2012.

Led by VisitBritain, these surveys include inbound and domestic tourism statistics for the UK and the regions and include occupancy figures, visitor travel patterns and visitor spend figures. UK Occupancy Surveys are also available.