Davos 2016: How much does it cost to attend the 46th World Economic Forum?

The 46<sup>th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort of Davos will witness top heads from business, banking, politics, civil society, media and religion attending. The ticket to attend the event, to be held between 20 and 23 January 2016, comes with a hefty price tag.

It has been revealed that members pay about £22,000 (€28,911, $31,473) on average considering that fees from WEF's membership, which is capped at around a thousand of the world's biggest corporations and enterprises, touched CHF32m (£22.2m), according to WEF's annual report ending June 2015.

The status and access given to a member is denoted by a coloured badge. To get a higher ranking badge, members could upgrade to the status of a partner by paying extra. Partnership fees constitute WEF's biggest revenue generator. This increased to CHF115m in 2015, up 7.6% from 2014 and up 50% from 2011. Its 100 strategic partners include the likes of American investment banks such as Citi to leading technology companies such as Google and global resource players such as BP.

Both members and partners who intend to attend the forum meetings should pay a participation fee, which in 2015 came up to a combined CHF47m, marking a 7.3% increase from 2014 and a 35% increase since 2011.

Apart from fees, WEF also accepts grants, donations and legacies. The 2015 WEF annual report indicated that its total revenues increased to CHF206m, marking a 3% increase from 2014 and a 31% increase since 2011.

The five-day event will see 2,500 participants from Leonardo DiCaprio to David Cameron converge at the Davos Congress Centre. The official theme for the upcoming meet is "mastering the fourth industrial revolution". While discussions would focus on the impact of robots and artificial intelligence in the real world, the spotlight for the participants will remain on global financial markets and whether or not the recent slowdown is more evidence of potential trouble in the future.

Participants aside, among those sitting in the chair at Davos 2016 will include Mary Barra, the boss of General Motors and Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of Credit Suisse, according to The Times.