A fund to attract international conferences has secured events worth £70 million to the economy over the next five years.
Tourism body VisitScotland said its Conference Bid Fund has, to date, offered financial support to organisers of 29 conferences which are expected to bring a total of 44,000 delegates to Scotland.
The fund set up in March has given £722,000 towards conferences across the sectors of life sciences, education, renewable energy and food and drink.
VisitScotland said it wants to attract conferences to all areas of Scotland, not just to city centre venues.
Earlier this month the Society of Biblical Literature brought more than 850 delegates to St Andrews University, benefiting the local economy by an estimated £1.7 million, the body said.
Neil Brownlee, head of business tourism at VisitScotland, said: "Business tourism is a key sector supporting not only conference centres and hotels throughout the country but hundreds of other operators not normally associated with tourism, such as independent caterers and unique venues.
"While tourism is one of the Scottish Government's key target sectors, business tourism uniquely pulls from all the other sectors such as life sciences, energy and food and drink.
"A recent industry report found that business tourism is worth a staggering £1.9 billion to the Scottish economy."
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