Britain’s business events trade has sent Westminster a blunt warning: act now, or watch rival nations take the work elsewhere.
Organisers say more than 214 trade groups, venues, event organisers and service firms have backed a letter to Lisa Nandy, the UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Dated 4 August, it asks Whitehall to adopt in full the findings of Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee. The letter itself describes business events as a £33.6 billion UK sector spanning trade shows, exhibitions, conferences, congresses and meetings.
The stakes are large. UK business events are worth £33.6 billion a year. That includes trade fairs, meetings, shows and congresses. The sector says these are not just tourism products. They are places where deals are done, exports are won, and new ideas meet cash. VisitBritain’s research independently cites the same £33.6 billion value for the business-events sector.
MPs appear to agree. Their Business events report, published on 6 July, said the UK lacks the clear lead, funding and plan seen in rival nations. It called for a long-term UK strategy, firmer support from ministers, and a shift in policy responsibility from the former Department for Business and Trade. After July’s changes, that office is now the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.
MPs also challenged cuts to VisitBritain’s work in this field. Evidence given to the inquiry said the team had been cut hard and the Business Events Growth Programme was ending. The committee subsequently urged ministers to maintain overseas promotion funding and reconsider the reduction in VisitBritain’s business-events team.
That is awkward timing. Big events are often won years ahead, and rival cities do not tend to wait while Britain sorts out the paperwork.
Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage MP called the cut in support “utterly irrational and entirely counterproductive”. MPs said the sector backs hundreds of thousands of jobs and helps drive trade, investment and fresh ideas across the country.
The money case is hard to ignore. VisitBritain says its Business Events Growth Programme produced £60.6 million in direct economic return from April 2018 to March 2024. Every £1 spent returned £35 to the economy. It backed 91 events in 18 British cities in that span. Trade bodies say later rounds lifted the total to 167 events before funding was withdrawn.
That reach matters well beyond London. Aberdeen, Glasgow, Sheffield, Liverpool, Cambridge and Newport are among the cities named by the sector. Delegates fill hotel rooms, book tables, use local transport and buy from event firms.
They also bring buyers, research teams and investors face to face. For all the talk of virtual meetings, a firm handshake still seems to have a sound balance sheet.
The letter argues that Britain now has less state backing for business events than Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, and many other European rivals. It values the global market at US$1.6 trillion and warns that the UK’s share can fall if support does not keep pace. Those comparative and global-market figures are claims made by the industry coalition in its letter.
One claim needs a small but important fix. The letter says business-event visitors make up 17 per cent of all visits. VisitBritain’s detailed 2024 data shows that 17 per cent actually refers to all inbound business visits 6.8 million of 39 million visits. Business-events visits were 2.56 million, or about 6.6 per cent of the total. That point does not erase the sector’s value, but facts matter when making the case to Whitehall.
The wider target remains bold. The UK aims to attract 50 million international visits a year by 2030. VisitBritain says business travellers spent £5.9 billion in 2024, while business-events visitors spent about £2.8 billion.
An industry spokesperson put the campaign in plain terms: “Jobs, trade, investment, innovation; this is what’s on the line.”
The message is just as plain. Britain has the venues, the skill and the global name. The sector now wants one plan, stable backing and ministers willing to help sell the country.
In the global events race, an empty diary is not a neutral result. Someone else will fill it.
By: Bridget Gomez – © 2026.
Read Time: 3 minutes.
Author Bio:
Bridget has never been built for stillness. Of Portuguese heritage, she began as a nurse, tending veterans at the Repatriation Hospital, listening to stories as colourful as the life she was yet to live. It was worthy, steady work, but wanderlust, as always, proved louder than routine.
So, she traded starch for a backpack and disappeared for a year, chasing trains, sunsets and the occasional regrettable glass of wine. She wrote everything down: the dust, the laughter, the missteps, the magic. Those notebooks became a travel blog, then a habit, then a calling.
Eventually she found Global Travel Media, or perhaps it found her.
Today Bridget writes with heart, humour and a dash of mischief, still travelling, just now with words.
