The loss of VisitBritain’s Business Events Growth Programme

Dear Secretary of State,

We write as Tourism Alliance and UKEVENTS, representing organisations across the UK’s visitor economy and events industry, to express our serious concern at VisitBritain’s confirmation that there is no longer any ringfenced funding for Business Events or for the Business Events Growth Programme (BEGP). The team has been restructured into a slimmed-down England-only function, and the national, cross-Britain coordination role it provided has been lost.

We recognise that VisitBritain has not chosen this. The organisation has been transparent that government funding reductions have forced cuts of around 10% to its salary budget. The responsibility for this decision, and its consequences, lies with government.

We urge you to restore ringfenced funding for business events and the BEGP as a matter of urgency.

The case for doing so is compelling and independently evidenced.

The BEGP delivered a 35:1 return on investment and £60.6 million in direct economic return since 2018, from a total government investment of less than £1.8 million. That compares favourably with leisure marketing, which returns 25:1. These are not projections; they are independently verified outcomes. The programme’s performance has accelerated over time: direct economic return more than doubled in the post-pandemic period, from £16.5 million in 2018-20 to £39.8 million in 2022-24. The number of supported events grew from 8 in 2018/19 to 40 in 2025/26. In total, 167 events across cities throughout Britain have benefited since the programme began; 76 of them in the last two financial years alone.

The programme has supported events across 18 cities, with significant reach beyond London to Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Bristol, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Manchester, Cambridge, Newport and Newcastle. That regional spread reflects deliberate national coordination. It is not something that will happen automatically through a devolved, England-only function.

The pipeline now at risk is substantial. In 2025/26, bid support applications project potential delegate spend of over £33.6 million. International Delegate Growth applications in 2024/25 projected a further £7.7 million in additional delegate spend. Events with active support run through to 2030, including bids for the International Congress of Mathematicians in Glasgow (5,000 delegates expected), the World Electric Vehicle Symposium in Birmingham (11,000 delegates expected) and the ITS World Congress 2027 in Birmingham (16,000 delegates expected). Without the specialist team that managed these relationships, confirmed wins are at risk and future bids will be significantly harder to procure.

The economic case extends well beyond visitor spend. BEGP-supported events have facilitated international trade deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds, attracted inward investment, generated published research, supported policy development and engaged communities and young people across the UK. These outcomes align directly with the government’s own industrial strategy and growth agenda.

The decision to withdraw ringfenced funding leaves the UK isolated among its international competitors, all of whom are moving in the opposite direction.

Canada is perhaps the most instructive comparison. Its equivalent programme, the International Convention Attraction Fund (ICAF) run by Destination Canada, has delivered a 22:1 return on investment. When the fund came up for renewal, a coalition of more than 100 industry partners wrote to the Prime Minister calling for its continuation. The Canadian government responded by announcing an additional $10 million in funding. The UK government, faced with the same choice, has withdrawn ringfenced funding entirely.

Australia’s national tourism body operates with a budget of nearly $200 million a year and its dedicated Business Events Bid Fund Programme has just been extended through to 2032, providing long-term certainty for international event bids at the same moment the UK has walked away from the field. Australia welcomed more than 730,000 international business events visitors in 2025, contributing almost $4 billion to its national economy.

Singapore has maintained a dedicated government business events agency for over 40 years, consistently ranked as Asia’s top convention city. It offers financial support, venue access, government introductions and marketing assistance to eligible events; and Singapore’s government added over S$300 million to its Tourism Development Fund in 2024 alone.

The UAE has invested heavily across the past decade in transforming Dubai and Abu Dhabi into global MICE hubs, with Abu Dhabi maintaining its own dedicated Convention and Exhibition Bureau since 2013 and officials confirming at IMEX Frankfurt this year that the country is continuing to expand its world-class facilities in line with national strategic objectives.

Germany maintains a national convention bureau funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, alongside active city-level funding programmes. The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions offers national bid support, strategic guidance and a pre-finance and guarantee fund for international congresses.

All of these countries invest in business events because they understand the full return. The BEGP evaluation found that grant recipients consistently made the same point: the UK government does not grasp the value of business events in the way that competitor nations do. That assessment was made when the BEGP still existed. The position has now deteriorated further.

The BEGP was costing less than £300,000 a year on average. The cost of not having it is many times greater.

The UK visitor economy contributes £147 billion to the national economy, supports 2.4 million jobs and generates £52 billion in tax revenues annually. Business events are a disproportionately high-value part of that picture. The BEGP demonstrated, with rigorous independent evidence, that relatively small amounts of targeted government funding generate returns that dwarf the investment. That is precisely the kind of programme a growth-focused government should be protecting.

We ask that you:

1. Confirm the full extent of the impact on the current pipeline of supported events and bids, and set out what steps are being taken to protect events already in progress.
2. Restore ringfenced funding for a national Business Events Growth Programme, whether delivered through VisitBritain, VisitEngland or an alternative model, at a level sufficient to sustain the programme’s recent activity.
3. Meet with industry representatives to discuss how government advocacy for UK business events can be strengthened as part of the forthcoming Visitor Economy Growth Strategy.

We look forward to your response.

Signatories