The annual Scottish Association Survey examines the incredible benefits and opportunity of hosting association events in Scotland. In conjunction with Scotland's convention bureaux, conferences centres, venues, universities and hotels; the survey is shaping a clearer picture of the value that the association sector brings to Scotland and as well as revealing underlying trends and insights.
To gather the data for the survey VisitScotland asks the business events industry in Scotland to share conference data with us. This data is checked for accuracy and compliance with our qualifying standards before analysis is conducted by the VisitScotland Insights department.
The first survey was conducted in 2018/19 and has been repeated annually since, with some surveys covering more than one year due to covid disruption.
The Scottish Association Survey Results
2022/2023 Survey Results
In 2022/23 - the first year without restrictions since the Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, showed a strong recovery to pre-pandemic levels.
In 2022/23 Scotland hosted 282 association events - an 85% return to the volume of events recorded in 2019/20.
95,000 delegates attended events in Scotland, spending 295,000 delegate days. This is a 78% return of delegate numbers, and a 72% return of delegate days to pre-covid levels.
The net additional value of association events in 2022/23 c£175m - a 72% return to the value generated in 2019/20.
As in previous years, the Life Sciences generated the most events, and the largest number of delegate days. 53% of all delegate days were from the life sciences.
Other notable sectors for delegate days include:
- Energy 7%
- Education 6%
- Finance and Business 6%
- Engineering 5%
- ICT and Data 4%
Read here the full 2022/23 - 2021/22 Scottish Association Survey report.
2021/2022 Survey Results
The 2021/22 results need to be considered in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Business events were only permitted in 2021/22 from August to December, and, following a pause to late January, were permitted again from February to March.
This is clearly a challenging environment to plan association events, however given that the previous year no events took place at all, we see an encouraging return to live events as soon as was possible.
In 2021/22 a total of 44 association events took place.
These 44 events attracted 17,000 delegates and generated 98,000 delegate days.
The net additional impact generated was c.£57m.
Read here the full 2022/23 - 2021/22 Scottish Association Survey report.
2020/21 Survey Results
It is important to note that the results for 2020/21 describe value that was lost due to Covid-19.
In 2020/21 Scotland would have hosted 271 association events.
142,000 delegates were projected to come to Scotland, translating into 555,000 delegate days spent in Scotland - up 35% on 2019/20.
Life Science events would have accounted for 50% of delegate days.
ICT and Data events would have accounted for 10% of delegate days.
The Social Sciences would have accounted for 3% of delegate days.
The total net additional value of association conferences in 2020/21 in Scotland was projected to be £330m - an increase of 33% on 2019/20.
Read here the full 2019/20 - 2020/21 Scottish Association Survey report.
2019/2020 Survey Results
In 2019/20 Scotland hosted 330 association events.
In total up to 121,000 delegates came to Scotland, translating into 412,000 delegate days spent in Scotland.
Life Science events accounted for 42% of delegate days - down 13%
ICT and Data events account for 10% of delegate days - up 2%
The Social Sciences account for 11% of delegate days - up 4%
The total net additional value of association conferences in 2019/20 in Scotland was £250m.
Read here the full 2019/20 - 2020/21 Scottish Association Survey report.
2018/2019 Survey Results
In 2018/19 Scotland hosted 447 association events.
In total up to 130,000 delegates came to Scotland, translating into 425,000 delegate days spent in Scotland.
38% of all association events were in the Life Sciences, but, those 38% of events account for 56% of all delegate days.
ICT and Data events accounted for 8% of delegate days.
The Social Sciences accounted for 7% of delegate days.
Mathematics and Physics, Education, Finance and Professional Studies all account for approximately 4% of delegate days each.
The total direct expenditure of association conferences in 2018/19 in Scotland was £206m.
Read here the full Scottish Association Survey 2018/19 report.
For any further information on the Scottish Association Survey please contact Patrick Lamont.
VisitScotland would like to extend a huge thanks to all our partners in Scotland who helped make this survey possible. Even with our best intentions data was not collected from every venue in Scotland. If your business hosts association events and was not able to submit data for this report, please get in touch so we can ensure you are included in future.