Events - Stats crunch

In 2005 a major KPMG report* revealed the economic value of the UK Exhibitions industry:

• 17m visitors (more than the population of Sweden and Bulgaria combined!)
• generates £9.3bn of expenditure in the UK economy (more than the entire GDP of Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Iceland and Cyprus!)
• £4.1bn of GDP contribution
• supports 137,000 jobs, some 0.5 percent of total UK employment
• tax revenues of £1bn per annum
• UK exhibitions directly support leisure sectors of hotels, restaurants and entertainment providers contributing the following amounts:
  • accommodation £720m
  • travel £258m
  • food & beverage £403m
  • shopping £312m
  • entertainment £179m
• generates 19m bed nights pa. (the same as the entire number of beds in Australia!)

More recently, 2007 research from Outsell Inc showed that trade magazine advertisers are switching spend to events more than any other media, including all new media formats:

*KPMG Report: ‘Economic impact of the UK Exhibitions industry’ commissioned by the Association of Exhibition Organisers (aeo) and supported by the Association of Event Venues (aev), published 17th November 2005.

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