The events sector played a big role in tourism last year, with new data revealing that event-related tourism spending continued to grow at pace driven by sports matches, expos and concerts.
An analysis by Mabrian and Data Appeal of Europe’s event-driven tourism sector found that it maintained strong momentum in 2025 with overall tourism spending rising by 7% year-on-year. This growth, the report states, reflects sustained demand for live experiences. This is good news for com munities in which the events are held, as Mabrian’s chief marketing and communications officer Carlos Cendra says the events sector’s true value lies in the wealth it creates for local communities and their capacity to help redistribute tourism activity across territories and seasons.
. . . Insights
The study drew on data from 12 European countries, with Belgium seeing the most notable annual growth in events-related tourism spending, up some 20% year on-year, followed by the UK and Ireland, both rising 10% even with the UK seeing a 6% decline in the number of events. As for what events bring with them the most spend, sports led the way alongside expos, with these two events types accounting for 41.4% and 29.4% of events-related tourism spending respectively. Concerts also played a prominent role across the 12 European countries studied. Nearly 90% of events held in 2025 were music concerts, professional conferences, and sports matches. See the study HERE.
