Visit Belfast

Across the global business events sector, sustainability action has traditionally focused on individual events, with measurement and interventions applied on a case-by-case basis. While valuable, this approach provides only a partial view, limiting the ability of destinations to understand and influence overall impact. Evidence shows that the majority of emissions sit outside the venue, primarily in delegate travel, yet this remains largely unaddressed at a system level.

In response, Visit Belfast has evolved its approach, retaining direct, one-to-one support for event organisers, while introducing a destination-wide, data-driven strategy. In partnership with EY, we have developed a Belfast-specific carbon model embedded within a wider visitor economy framework. This enables us to estimate the carbon impact of all business events, integrate delegate travel, and analyse performance alongside economic and social value.

Crucially, this allows sustainability to move from retrospective reporting to proactive decision-making. Visit Belfast can now estimate the carbon impact of events at bid stage using delegate origin data, assess carbon alongside economic value, and model interventions such as modal shift and changes in delegate mix. This enables more informed decisions about which events will deliver the greatest overall impact, how they are designed, and where the most effective opportunities for emissions reduction lie.

The model is already being applied to support real-world planning and testing, giving confidence in its ability to inform decision-making at scale. Visit Belfast has moved from measuring a small number of events, to understanding the carbon impact of its full business events portfolio. In March 2026, this insight has been translated into action through the launch of the Belfast Visitor Economy Net Zero (BVENZ) Working Group, bringing together industry partners to define and deliver a coordinated pathway to reduce emissions across the sector.