Economic Impact of Business Events

According to a 2018 study conducted by Oxford Economics, the value, influence and impact business events have on the global economy is far reaching.

• Business events involved more than 1.5 billion participants across more than 180 countries.
• Business events generated more than $1.07 trillion of direct spending, representing spending to plan and produce business events, business events-related travel, and other direct spending, such as spending by exhibitors.
• Business events supported 10.3 million direct jobs globally and generated $621.4 billion of direct GDP.
• The top 50 countries accounted for $1.03 trillion of business events direct spending, representing 96% of the global total.

The $1.5 trillion of total GDP supported by global business events would rank the sector as the 13th largest economy globally, larger than the economies of countries such as Australia, Spain, Mexico, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. Based on its $621.4 billion direct GDP impact, the business events sector would rank as the 22nd largest economy globally.