The new group is an initiative being spearheaded and driven by Visit London to strengthen and develop London's business tourism offering.  

The group will be looking at improving and building London's business tourism offering before, during and after the 2012 Olympic Games, with a key focus on delivering conventions and events for London.  This group will involve both the public and private sector to ensure that the City works together to bring further high profile events to the Capital.

The new London Business Tourism Group (LBTG) includes a number of city stakeholders from some of the largest and most influential associations and industry groups including the GLA, LDA, Visit London, Tfl, BHA and BAA.  ExCeL London has been helping to drive this initiative and has worked with Visit London to include other business-venue owners such as AEG, Earls Court & Olympia, as well as other key business and events individuals who work within the events and exhibitions industry, such as Reed Exhibitions.

The group, which has already had an initial first meeting, have begun to consider three main areas: 

• Raising the profile of business tourism in London – through support and profiling of key events, exhibitions and meetings taking place in the capital. 
• Improving the image and attractiveness of London to global meetings and exhibitors and events industries. 
• Raising London's rankings in the ICCA statistics from 19th.

Dan Ritterband, Director of Marketing at the Mayor's office who will be championing the group comments:  "The London Business Tourism Group is a key element, which the Mayor is keen to build and maintain. Business Tourism is incredibly important for the city and we want to ensure that we do as much as possible to work with all the predominant city bodies to ensure we have a co-ordinated and open approach. It is absolutely key for the Mayor and the city that we see some changes being made to business tourism and really help to strengthen London's offer as the world's greatest business destination."

Sally Chatterjee, Interim CEO of Visit London and one of the leading members of the new LBTG group said "Visit London is clearly focused on ensuring the very best support and offers for congresses and associations coming in to London. We are aware that there are still areas that London can strengthen and improve on to make the city a more appealing destination to do business in. The LBT group has been created to ensure that those changes are made and are made soon. "

Tracy Halliwell, Business Tourism Director also a member of group added "London is a complex environment. It's in the top three of the most popular cities in the world, we're the financial capital of the world, our hotels run at a massive 85% occupancy, and we also have the world's busiest airport with Heathrow welcoming in approx 90 Million visitors each year.  Visit London has already been working tirelessly to align all of London's key business tourism sectors including London's hotel, transport and events sectors and with this new LBT group in place and the support of the Mayor, we hope to drive even further business tourism to the capital."

London's business tourism offer has recently been strengthened through a number of new initiatives including two major building projects. The first is the development of Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, which will be London's biggest hotel for over a decade and a major benefit for large groups and meetings coming in to London from early 2010.

The second is the opening of ExCeL London's Phase 2 (opening date to be announced). This expansion will include a flexible auditorium with seating for 5,000 delegates, a banqueting hall for 5,000 and a fully flexible conference suite with 17 breakout spaces for up to 2,500 delegates.  There will also be further bars, restaurants, production kitchens and further flat floor event space – bringing the venue up to 100,000sqm and a covered walkway from Prince Regent Docklands Light Railway station.