UK Corporate Entertaining Statistics 2026: The Complete Data Guide
Corporate entertaining is back and stronger than ever.
But more importantly, the reason behind it has shifted.
In a world of back to back calls, screens, and digital everything, businesses are rediscovering something simple and powerful: people need people.
The data reflects it. Investment in corporate events, hospitality, and shared experiences is rising across the UK, not as a nice to have, but as a strategic tool for connection, engagement, and relationship building.
This guide brings together the latest UK corporate entertaining statistics for 2026, alongside the trends shaping how companies are bringing people together today.
Because the most valuable conversations rarely happen over email or Zoom. They happen around a table, shared over good food, beautiful wine, and genuine human connection.
Key Findings at a Glance
- The UK events industry is worth £68.7 billion in 2025, up from £70 billion in pre-pandemic forecasts, demonstrating strong recovery
- 80% of UK businesses plan to increase or maintain events spending in 2025, signalling renewed corporate confidence in face-to-face entertainment
- Corporate event spending in the UK reached £2 billion in 2025, with steady growth expected through 2026
- 71% of UK employers hosted at least one internal event (away days, team-building, staff summits) in 2024, up from 68% in 2023
- 68% of HR directors increased budgets for internal events compared to 2023, reflecting the priority placed on workforce connection
- Greater London accounts for 28.9% of all UK entertainment spending, making it the dominant hub for corporate entertainment
The Size of the UK Corporate Entertaining Market
The UK corporate entertaining and events market represents one of the most significant sectors of the British economy. According to recent data, the UK events industry is valued at £68.7 billion as of 2025, representing a substantial recovery from pandemic-era disruptions and consolidating the industry's position as a critical economic driver.
Within this broader market, corporate event spending specifically reached £2 billion in 2025. This figure encompasses conferences, seminars, product launches, team-building activities, corporate hospitality, and entertainment events organised by companies across all sectors.
For perspective, the Business Visits & Events Partnership (BVEP) has documented that in 2019, business events generated more than £31 billion of direct spend, with the broader leisure events sector contributing a further £39 billion. The sector employs approximately 700,000 people across the UK, making corporate entertainment a significant employer as well as a major economic contributor.
This market represents not just spending on external events, but also encompasses internal corporate gatherings, team development programs, executive retreats, and client entertainment—all essential components of modern business strategy.
Corporate Entertainment Spend by Year: Recovery and Growth Trajectory
Understanding the year-on-year trends in corporate entertainment spending is crucial for budgeting and strategic planning. The market has demonstrated a clear recovery pattern since 2020, though with distinct phases:
The COVID-19 Impact and Recovery
The pandemic created unprecedented disruption to corporate entertaining in 2020-2021, with many companies suspending or severely restricting entertainment budgets. The events industry saw revenue contracts dramatically, and in-person gatherings came to a near standstill.
However, the recovery has been robust. By 2024, research showed that around 62% of UK businesses increased event spending compared to 2023, indicating a rapid return to pre-pandemic confidence levels. This acceleration continued into 2025, with 80% of UK businesses planning to increase or maintain events spending.
2026 Outlook: Acceleration Expected
Looking ahead, the forecast is optimistic. 74% of Fortune 1000 companies plan to increase their event budgets in 2025, suggesting this trend will continue through 2026. The global corporate events market is projected to almost double to £441 billion by 2029, with the UK market expected to grow alongside this trajectory.
This expansion reflects a fundamental shift in how businesses view corporate entertainment: no longer as discretionary spending, but as essential investment in employee engagement, client relationships, and brand building.
What Types of Corporate Entertainment Are Companies Booking?
The landscape of corporate entertainment in 2026 reflects changing priorities and employee expectations. Companies are moving away from traditional, one-size-fits-all events toward more diverse, experience-focused programming.
Internal Events Dominate
The data shows that 71% of UK employers hosted at least one internal event such as away days, team-building sessions, or staff summits in 2024. This includes:
- Away days and retreats (often held outside London to encourage team bonding)
- Team-building activities and workshops
- Staff celebrations and recognition events
- Christmas parties and seasonal celebrations
- Launch events for new initiatives or products
Moreover, 68% of HR directors reported budget increases for internal gatherings in 2024, reflecting corporate recognition that employee engagement directly impacts retention and productivity.
Experience-Based Events Lead Growth
A major trend reshaping corporate entertainment in 2026 is the shift toward experiential marketing. Companies increasingly recognise that memorable experiences create stronger emotional connections and lasting impressions than traditional hospitality.
Experiential events include wine tastings and food pairings, immersive brand experiences, outdoor team challenges, wellness and mindfulness programmes, and cultural experiences. These contrast sharply with conventional conference dinners or generic corporate lunches.
54% of attendees say they plan to attend more in-person events compared to last year, and crucially, 71% of attendees believe in-person B2B conferences offer the most effective way to learn about new products or services. This validates the investment in high-quality, memorable corporate entertainment experiences.
The Micro-Events Trend
A notable 2026 trend is the rise of "micro-events"—smaller, more intimate gatherings that prioritise authenticity and meaningful connection over spectacle. Rather than hosting one large annual gala, companies increasingly favour multiple smaller events that allow for more genuine interaction and personalised experiences.
This approach is particularly popular with mid-sized companies and those operating in professional services, financial services, and technology sectors. It also offers better value for money and allows for more flexible scheduling.
Regional Breakdown: London's Dominance in Corporate Entertainment
While corporate entertaining takes place across the UK, London's concentration of corporate headquarters, professional services firms, and international businesses makes it the undisputed hub for corporate hospitality spending.
The data is striking: Greater London accounts for 28.9% of all UK entertainment spending, followed by Manchester at 8.1%, Glasgow at 5.7%, and Birmingham at 3.5%. This means London generates nearly as much entertainment spending as the next 10 regional cities combined.
For historic context, music tourism spending—a proxy for entertainment spending generally—was highest in London at £1.2 billion (as of 2019 data), and London's share of the £10.6 billion UK arts and culture GDP contribution was £3.4 billion alone.
Factors driving this concentration include:
- Concentration of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 company headquarters
- Major international financial centre status (banking, insurance, professional services)
- Largest concentration of law firms, accounting firms, and consulting practices
- Media, advertising, and technology sectors (which prioritise corporate entertainment highly)
- Premium venue availability and hospitality infrastructure
- Ease of client and staff access via transport networks
For corporate entertainment providers, London's dominance creates both opportunity and competition. The city offers the largest market for premium, bespoke corporate experiences, but also attracts the most providers. This is why companies like Lunzer Wine, which specialise in high-end, tailored corporate experiences in Mayfair, have found a thriving market—corporates in London specifically value personalised, curated entertainment that reflects their brand and creates genuine client engagement.
Corporate Wine Tasting: A Growing Niche with Strong Demand
Wine tasting has emerged as one of the most popular and cost-effective forms of corporate entertainment in the UK, particularly among financial services, law firms, and professional services companies.
Market Size and Growth
The UK wine market was valued at £19.8 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach £27.4 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 3.65%. While this broader market includes retail and on-premise consumption, the premium segment—where corporate wine tastings sit—is growing faster than average.
The popularity of wine tasting parties, wine tourism, and food-and-wine pairings has increased demand for both domestic and international wines. More importantly, consumers and corporate clients are seeking immersive wine experiences rather than passive consumption—creating strong demand for structured corporate wine tastings with expert guidance.
Key drivers include:
- Growing interest in wine education among corporate professionals
- Wine's association with sophistication and cultural capital (particularly important in professional services)
- Strong recovery in wine tourism and experiential hospitality post-pandemic
- 67% of UK adults drink wine, providing a broad demographic base for corporate tasting events
- Preference for experience-based events (which wine tastings exemplify)
Lunzer Wine has positioned itself at the premium end of this market, offering curated wine tasting experiences for corporate clients including major firms like UBS, PwC, JP Morgan, and Deutsche Bank. This positioning reflects a key insight: in the corporate entertainment market, differentiation and curation matter more than volume.
Why Wine Tastings Resonate with Corporations
Several factors explain why corporate wine tastings have become a preferred entertainment format:
- Sophistication: Wine tastings convey a sense of refined, upmarket entertainment without being ostentatious
- Education: Unlike passive events, tastings provide learning opportunities that employees and clients appreciate
- Conversation: Wine tastings naturally facilitate discussion and networking, meeting key corporate objectives
- Flexibility: Tastings can be tailored to group size, budget, duration, and theme (new world vs. old world, organic wines, etc.)
- Memorable: Sensory experiences like wine tasting create lasting memories, supporting brand and relationship building
- Value Perception: Wine tastings are perceived as premium and thoughtful without necessarily commanding the highest price tags
The Rise of Experience-Based Corporate Events
One of the most significant trends reshaping corporate entertainment in 2026 is the strategic shift from traditional hospitality to experience-based events. This reflects a broader change in corporate philosophy about what entertainment should achieve.
From Spectacle to Authenticity
Research from leading event strategists shows that the corporate events industry is moving away from spectacle for spectacle's sake and embracing authentic connection, hyper-personalisation, and human-centered strategy. Companies increasingly recognise that expensive but impersonal events fail to achieve relationship-building or engagement goals.
This shift reflects broader trends in corporate culture:
- Authenticity Matters: Employees and clients increasingly value genuine experiences over expensive theatrics
- Personalisation: Events designed with attendee preferences in mind are more effective and memorable
- Sustainability: 72% of corporate event planners ranked sustainability as a "high priority" in 2024, up from 56% in 2022
- ROI Focus: Companies demand measurable outcomes from entertainment investments (engagement, relationship building, brand perception)
Attendance and Effectiveness Metrics
The data supporting this shift is compelling:
- Attendance for in-person events is expected to increase by 69% by 2026, with the cost per attendee rising to $169 per day
- 61% of organisers find hybrid events more cost-effective than in-person-only events, suggesting strategic mixing of formats
- 80% of event planners now host or plan hybrid events as a core format, allowing for flexibility and broader reach
These figures demonstrate that companies are not just continuing to invest in corporate events, but are doing so more strategically, choosing experience-based formats that deliver measurable value.
What PAs and Event Planners Are Booking in 2026
Personal Assistants and event planners are the gatekeepers of corporate entertainment spending, managing budgets and making vendor selections. Understanding their preferences and constraints is essential context for the 2026 market.
Budget Reality
An overwhelming 96% of office professionals now have responsibility for planning their companies' functions, according to recent research. This extends the decision-making power of PAs and EAs beyond just administration to actual strategic choices about entertainment.
Budget profiles vary significantly:
- Most PAs manage event budgets of £50,000 or less
- 16% manage budgets exceeding £90,000
- Just under half (44%) have witnessed budget reductions over the past five years due to cost-cutting measures
- However, 68% believe both internal and external corporate events remain a priority for their company's marketing strategy
This last point is crucial: despite cost pressures, event planners and their organisations view entertainment as strategically important, not discretionary.
Outsourcing Trends
A significant finding is that 66% of event planners outsource at least part of event management, suggesting a clear market for specialist providers. PAs and event planners increasingly recognise that outsourcing to specialists delivers better outcomes than trying to manage everything internally.
This has direct implications for bespoke corporate entertainment providers: companies are actively seeking expert partners to curate and deliver high-quality experiences. This explains why specialist corporate wine tasting providers have thrived—they offer something that generalist event planners cannot deliver in-house: expert knowledge, curation, and execution of premium, memorable experiences.
Sustainability and Values-Based Decisions
A striking finding is that 72% of corporate event planners rank sustainability as a high priority, up from 56% in 2022. This represents a major shift in event selection criteria.
Implications for providers:
- Sourcing and sustainability credentials matter in vendor selection
- Waste reduction and environmental impact are discussed in RFPs
- Local sourcing and fair trade credentials increasingly influence decisions
- Providers who can demonstrate environmental responsibility have a competitive advantage
Tax Implications of Corporate Entertaining: HMRC Rules and Best Practice
Understanding the tax treatment of corporate entertaining is essential for both budget forecasting and compliance. HMRC rules create important distinctions that planners and finance teams must navigate.
Client Entertainment: Disallowable
This is the crucial rule: in most cases, the cost of entertaining clients is NOT tax-deductible, nor is VAT on expenditure recoverable. HMRC's position is clear and unchanging: expenditure on business entertainment is not an allowable deduction against profits, even where it is wholly and exclusively for the trade.
For the 2025/26 tax year, the position remains unchanged: client hospitality is disallowable for corporation and income tax and blocked for VAT in most cases.
This applies to:
- Client dinners and lunches
- Client entertainment events (theatre, sporting events, etc.)
- Client hospitality at conferences or events
- Wine tastings and other entertainment for external clients or prospects
Companies cannot claim tax relief on these costs, meaning they represent true P&L expenses from a tax perspective. This has significant implications for budgeting and ROI calculations.
Employee Entertainment: Allowable with Exceptions
The situation is different for entertaining employees. Staff entertaining is generally considered an allowable business expense and is tax deductible. Allowable costs include:
- Food and drink
- Entertainment and activities
- Venue hire
- Transport
- Overnight accommodation
Additionally, VAT-registered businesses can recover VAT incurred on allowable staff entertaining expenditure, providing a 20% cost saving on such events.
The Annual Staff Event Exemption
There is one important exemption that many companies leverage: if a company holds an annual event open to all employees and the total cost does not exceed £150 per head per tax year, it can be exempt from income tax and National Insurance reporting for employees.
This exemption means:
- Companies can host one annual event per employee with a £150/head budget
- The £150 limit applies to costs including food, drink, entertainment, venue hire, and transport
- If multiple events are held, they must be apportioned against the £150 annual limit per employee
- The event must be genuinely open to all employees (cannot exclude grades or departments)
For an employee on £40,000 salary, the £150 annual exemption represents significant value, explaining why companies increasingly focus on one high-quality annual event rather than multiple smaller gatherings.
Definition of Employee for Tax Purposes
Not all entertainment qualifies as "employee entertainment." At a basic level, the person must be on the business's payroll and be paid a salary. This means:
- Former employees: not eligible
- Job candidates and interviewees: not eligible
- Contractors and freelancers: not eligible
- Shareholders who don't work in the business: not eligible
- Family members of employees: typically not eligible
Practical Implications for Corporate Entertainment Planning
These HMRC rules create important planning considerations:
- Client entertainment ROI: Since costs are disallowable, companies must justify client entertainment purely on relationship and revenue grounds, not tax grounds
- Event structuring: Companies sometimes structure events as "team building with clients present" or "networking events for employees" to create more allowable expense treatments
- Budget allocation: Separate budgets for employee entertainment (tax-deductible) vs. client entertainment (disallowable) are common
- Annual event planning: The £150/head exemption creates an incentive to design one premium annual event rather than multiple smaller ones
Why Specialist Providers Matter: The Value of Expertise
The data on outsourcing (66% of planners outsource at least part of event management) reflects a broader market insight: corporate entertainment has become complex enough that specialist expertise delivers measurable value.
Specialist providers like Lunzer Wine deliver several benefits that generalist planners and internal teams struggle to match:
- Expert Curation: Selecting wines, pairings, and experiences that align with client profile and event objectives
- Professional Execution: Handling logistics, timing, and service delivery to ensure flawless experiences
- Scalability: Managing events from 8 people to 150 people with consistent quality
- Relationships: Established relationships with premium venues, suppliers, and partners across London
- Customisation: Tailoring experiences to client brief, brand values, and audience preferences
- Insights: Data-driven understanding of what corporate audiences respond to and find memorable
- Risk Mitigation: Professional liability, insurance, and protocols that internal teams may lack
This is why companies like UBS, Howden, Oracle, FT, PwC, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Sky, and Lloyds Bank have chosen to partner with specialist providers: the return on the investment in specialist expertise is clear in the quality, memorability, and effectiveness of the experiences delivered.
FAQ: Common Questions About UK Corporate Entertaining Statistics
What is the total size of the UK corporate entertaining market in 2026?
The UK events industry is valued at £68.7 billion as of 2025, with corporate event spending specifically at £2 billion in 2025. The market is expected to continue growing in 2026, with 80% of UK businesses planning to increase or maintain events spending.
How has corporate entertaining spending recovered since COVID-19?
The recovery has been substantial. By 2024, 62% of UK businesses had increased event spending compared to 2023. This accelerated into 2025, with 80% of UK businesses planning to increase or maintain spending. The market has demonstrated clear confidence in face-to-face entertainment as a strategic investment rather than discretionary spending.
What percentage of UK companies are spending on internal events and team building?
71% of UK employers hosted at least one internal event (away days, team-building sessions, or staff summits) in 2024. Additionally, 68% of HR directors reported increased budgets for internal events in 2024 compared to 2023, reflecting the strategic priority placed on employee engagement.
Is client entertainment tax-deductible in the UK?
No. According to HMRC rules, client entertainment costs are disallowable for both corporation and income tax purposes, and VAT is blocked in most cases. However, employee entertainment is generally tax-deductible, and companies can claim a £150 per head annual exemption for staff events. For 2025/26, the rules remain unchanged from previous years.
What is driving demand for experience-based corporate events?
Companies are moving away from spectacle toward authentic, personalised experiences. Key drivers include: 54% of attendees planning to attend more in-person events; 71% believing in-person B2B events are the most effective way to learn; and companies recognising that memorable experiences create stronger relationship and engagement outcomes. Additionally, 72% of event planners now prioritise sustainability, influencing provider selection.
Why is London the dominant hub for corporate entertaining?
Greater London accounts for 28.9% of all UK entertainment spending—nearly as much as the next 10 regions combined. This dominance reflects London's concentration of FTSE company headquarters, major international financial institutions, law firms, consulting practices, and media/tech sectors. The city also offers superior venue availability, hospitality infrastructure, and transport connectivity that corporate clients depend on.
Sources and Methodology
This article compiles the most current and authoritative data available on UK corporate entertaining, drawing from government statistics, industry bodies, and specialist research firms. All figures are from 2024-2025 unless otherwise noted.
Data Sources
- Business Visits and Events Partnership (BVEP): Industry body tracking the £70bn UK events sector and employment figures
- House of Commons Library: Research briefings on hospitality statistics and policy (February 2026)
- Mordor Intelligence: UK Hospitality Industry Size and Growth reports for 2025-2031
- Hospitality Data via RSM UK and CGA (part of NIQ): Hospitality Business Tracker and industry sentiment
- UK Corporate Event Planning Surveys: Multiple 2024-2025 surveys on HR event spending, team-building budgets, and planner preferences
- HMRC: Tax guidance on business entertainment expenses for 2025/26
- Event Industry Alliance: UK events sector economic contribution data
- Market research firms: Statista, IMARC Group, Euromonitor for wine market data and regional entertainment spending
- Eventbrite and Event Technology Platforms: TRNDS 2025 event industry trends data
Methodology
Figures are drawn from published industry reports, government statistics, and specialist research. Where data comes from surveys, the sample size and methodology are noted where available. Some figures are based on professionally collected market research; others are calculated from industry body estimates. Where different sources report varying figures for the same metric, the most conservative and credible estimate is used.
All figures are in British pounds (£) unless otherwise stated. Year references (2024, 2025, 2026) reflect the year the data was published or the year the forecast covers.
This article is designed as a linkable resource for HR and event planning professionals, PA magazines, and business entertainment industry publications. It will be updated periodically as new data becomes available.
