Abstract

1. Numerous UK locations have constructed purpose built conference venues as a tool for economic, social and environmental regeneration. In doing so, the UK conference sector has experienced considerable growth from post war to the present day. 2. This paper presents a précis of extant literature drawn from economic, social and environmental domains identifying the rationale behind the use of purpose built conference venues as a means of regeneration. 3. Our empirical analysis draws from time series data and a new survey of 53 UK purpose built conference venues to examine the temporal growth of purpose built venues during the post-war period up to 2001. Exponential smoothing techniques are applied to predict the growth of new establishments from 2001 to 2020. 4. The majority of research carried out on the impacts of the conference sector comes from Australia (Dwyer and Forsyth, 1997; Mistilis and Dwyer, 1999; Dwyer et al., 2000; McCabe et al., 2000) and the US (Fenich, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998). Fenich analyses the economic impacts and benefits of conference development and identifies many advantages and disadvantages associated with the presence of a conference venue. We draw on the works of Forsyth and Dwyer (1997) and Fenich (1992) to focus on the economic, social and environmental consequences of introducing a conference venue within a destination.