The bulk of the $192 million economic injection comes from the work done by BESydney which secures events for Australia’s most visited city.
BESydney has secured 57 events to be held in 2025, worth $186 million in direct expenditure, and there are more potential events in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, Business Events NSW, which works to secure business events for all regional parts of the state, has also won 57 events, worth $6 million in direct expenditure. These business events in the regions are expected to generate 14,500 visitor nights for non-metropolitan destinations across the state.
The hero event for NSW’s business events calendar in 2025 is the International Astronautical Congress, which is anticipated to attract 4,500 delegates to ICC Sydney in September. This event alone is forecast to push $21 million into Sydney’s economy.
Tourism Research Australia’s most recent business events figures – to December 2024 – that also capture domestic business events activity, likely not covered by BESydney, which has a primarily international focus, suggest the two bureaus are touching just a fraction of the business events being hosted in the state.
The Tourism Research Australia figures put business events visitors to NSW at 6.48 million in 2024, with 3.41 million visiting Sydney. The total business events visitor spend in NSW was $5.86 billion last year.
Public events in NSW are also playing a part in Sydney’s business events ecosystem, with hundreds of business events held during Vivid Sydney which ran through late May and the first half of June.
Major events in Sydney and regional NSW over winter are in and of themselves forecast to deliver $320 million to the economy.
Meanwhile Business Events NSW held its annual showcase to stimulate interest in meeting in regional NSW last week, with 200 event organisers and corporate travel buyers meeting with 50 operators and destination representatives from regional NSW at Machine Hall in Sydney.
