About

Summary

Business tourism was gaining a greater prominence as a key sector of tourism because of its size and yield, complementarity with leisure tourism, particularly with its out-of-season potential, the ability of business visitors to revisit a destination for leisure purposes, and the sector’s greater resilience to economic downturns and events that affect leisure tourism.

This study was commissioned to evaluate what business tourism product, in terms of venues for meetings and conferences, existed across the four North London boroughs, and how it was used.  The London Development Agency required this information to determine whether the area should be developed further for business tourism.

Our Approach

The first stage of the study was to undertake a comprehensive analysis of business tourism venues in the region, which included conference facilities, exhibition facilities and banqueting facilities.  We also investigated facilities in hotels, museums, visitor attractions, recreation and health and fitness centres, concert halls and theatres and town halls.

Although the study’s overriding objective was to assess supply, demand was also be assessed through consultations with conference and event buyers to determine the merits of arranging business events in the four boroughs that were included in the study.  We also interviewed staff from a number of the key venues in the region to understand how business tourism had changed in recent years, and what current and future issues and constraints might be encountered and how improvements could be made.  Such venues included Alexandra Palace, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, the RAF Museum, Kenwood House and Forty Hall.

Outcome

We provided the London Development Agency with a complete audit of business tourism venues in North London from Internet research, analysing tourist board lists, business directories and other information sources.  This was developed into a database that included full contact details, capacity and pricing.

The study included an assessment of where existing businesses in North London travelled to for their meetings and conferences, and the reasons why they used facilities both inside and outside of the region.  This provided robust information for making strategic decisions regarding the development of business tourism facilities in North London.