Business Tourism - Its Importance for Urban Destinations:

How would you like to attract a business worth over GBP 150 million a year to your city? Tempted? Read on to find out more about this attractive prospect. But be warned, you need to be aware that it requires hard work, innovation and, above all, specialist professional expertise, in-depth knowledge of the market place and exceptional team work.

The business in question is that of business events (conferences, meetings, conventions, incentives and trade fairs) and the figure quoted above gives the value of the conference business won by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau in 2007 ¹. It should be noted that this number represents only a part of the total economic impact of meetings and conventions in Glasgow, since not all events that are held in the city are necessarily routed through the services of Glasgow's Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO).

This article sets out to describe the impact of business events on the economy and society of host cities and goes on to analyse some of the key requirements for a successful business event marketing strategy.

Examples of success abound: Barcelona Convention Bureau states that 1,775 conferences were held in the city in 2007, attracting almost 630,000 participants. Every year, the Vienna Convention Bureau (VCB) releases statistics that aim to give a complete overview of the worth of business events to its economy. In 2007, the city hosted a total of 2764 conferences, meetings and incentives, generating more than 1.4 million overnights and EUR 760 million (over GBP 601 million) in induced GDP (Meeting Statistics Vienna 2007).

A similar picture is repeated in other cities across Europe and worldwide. Figures taken from the Vancouver Convention Bureau website illustrate the important economic impact of meetings and conventions throughout the Vancouver area. Click on the link to download the table 'Economic Impact of Meetings and Conventions in Metro Vancouver 2000 - 2007'.

Similarly to Vienna, VCB has worked to establish economic benefit multipliers that permit the organisation to calculate not just the total income from events, but also the amount of taxes that delegate spending generates at municipal, regional and national levels. And there is more; VCB's statistics allow it to establish an overall Industry Output figure, which includes spin-off activity from the delegate dollars 'moving through the economy'.

It is hardly surprising. therefore, that the economic gain from business events also results in new jobs: in 2007, Vancouver claims 12,262 posts, while Vienna boasts the creation of more than 15,000 year-round jobs as a direct result from hosting business events.

Business events also help to regenerate urban districts, especially inner city areas that have fallen on harder times. In the UK alone, Birmingham, Manchester and, again, Glasgow are excellent examples of this rejuvenating effect. And so is Barcelona, whose city fathers used first the Olympics and later the trade fair and conference infrastructure to propel their destination to inward investment stardom.

Societal Impacts

And, indeed, increased economic activity is not the only advantage of holding business events in your city. It is possible to argue that business events have a strongly positive influence on society within the host city.

Many of the world's historic monuments, art, cultural and sporting institutions can 2008 double as conference or reception venues. The Royal Palace in Warsaw's Old Town, the Picasso Museum in Malaga, the Sydney Opera House and the Wrigley Field baseball stadium in Chicago, all derive additional revenue from hosting business events. Often this provides a vital source of income for art and cultural institutions in particular; they can plough back their profits from events into costly maintenance or the purchase of new collections. Facilities are frequently refurbished, upgraded or expanded in order to meet the exacting demands of event organisers. This in turn can be said to benefit the local community who are the core audience for these institutions.

Also, less visible to the analytic eye of the economic or social statistician, business events can foster a feeling of civic pride among the host community. Before staging the G8 summit in 1998, the city of Birmingham in the UK embarked on a public relations campaign aimed at its own residents to make them aware of the global importance of the event, which regularly attracts exceptional levels of media attention, some of which is centred on the host destination.

The Business of Attracting Business Events

So how can a city profit from this highly lucrative industry? Essentially, by strategic planning, know-how and sheer hard graft - as well as an occasional helping hand from qualified consultants!

Strategic Vision

It all starts with the foresight necessary to recognise the importance of business events and to integrate this formal appreciation into the wider city planning and promotion strategy.

To assist them in this process, city officials often commission reports from external consultants on the status and future direction of the business events market and their own destination's preparedness. Thus, TEAM Tourism Consulting (TEAM) worked for Scarborough Borough to compose their Conference Market Development Plan and carried out an analysis on the impact of business tourism, in Telford, Shropshire and the Black Country on behalf of the Shropshire Tourism Research Unit.

Specialist Knowledge and Structure

Running a specialist department (often called a convention bureau or conference office), is another key success factor. Here, experts plan the city's business event marketing and sales strategy, act as spokespeople for the destination and its suppliers and, very importantly, talk to decision makers, influencers and intermediaries in the language of their industry and give them tailored support.

When TEAM was advising the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on establishing a business events strategy in 2007, the benchmarking of successful convention bureaux internationally (best practice structure and programme of activities) was an important element of the study.

Know Your Market

Even experts need to verify and update their knowledge. Successful convention bureaux therefore regularly carry out or commission research on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the business event market place. Examples are the international association research that TEAM carried out for the Edinburgh Convention Bureau and the study into the characteristics of business visitors to London undertaken on behalf of The London Cross River Partnership and Visit London.

The Magic Ingredient

There is however one special feature that is difficult to imitate, a quality probably best summed up by the expression, 'esprit de corps'. A successful destination, without exception, presents itself to the client as a team, united in their effort to attract and expertly host high quality business events in their city. The Convention Bureau is often the main linchpin, but there is also palpable supplier and local government enthusiasm and involvement.

Business events are important to cities around the world. In particular, they engender considerable economic and societal benefits and foster a united approach by city officials, DMOs and commercial stakeholders alike.

Convinced? No doubt, but to cement the argument, we leave you with a case study of the impact on its host city of Europe's largest conference, the European Society of Cardiology congress.

CASE STUDY: European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2007 in Vienna ²

The ESC Congress was held in Vienna from September 1st to 5th. The event attracted a total of 33,065 visitors, of whom 22,617 were delegates, 5,631 exhibitors, 562 journalists and 4,255 accompanying persons.

This mega-event induced 152,875 overnights, 91% of which were accommodated in Vienna, while the hotel trade in the surrounding area (5%) and neighboring countries (4%) also benefited. The Congress was held in Vienna for the fourth time.

Dr. Martina Stoff-Hochreiner, a business consultant and lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, prepared a study on the ESC Congress for the European Society of Cardiology and the Vienna Tourist Board. This revealed that the majority of the delegates (77%) were from Europe, with Germany the top ranking country of origin, followed by France, Italy and the United Kingdom. There were also visitors from the USA, Asia, and South and Central America. Some 13% of all delegates extended their stay in the city for business and/or private reasons. The average additional stay was 5.3 days.

Vienna scored top marks, with 68% rating the city as 'very good' and 32% 'good'; there were no 'poor' responses. The main points attracting positive feedback were aesthetic appeal, architecture, culture, friendliness and overall atmosphere. Vienna also scored highly as a conference city, and 51% of all respondents described it as a 'top conference destination' while 41% named it as their destination of preference. Among the main reasons cited for this high opinion of Vienna was the flawless conference organisation. Some 29% of all delegates indicated that they would be making a subsequent visit to the city as a result of 2007 ESC Congress, and a further 51% answered that they would 'perhaps' make a return visit.

References

¹ Source: News release 'Glasgow City Marketing Bureau Delivers Real Economic Benefit in 2007/2008' downloaded from the GCMB website.

² Information adapted from Vienna Convention Bureau news release 'Fifth record year in a row for Vienna conference business', 25-MAR-08, downloaded from the VCB website.

TEAM Associate Mady Keup has been undertaking consultancy work since 2004, specialising in international and business tourism marketing. She has extensive experience of all aspects of marketing (research, planning and promotion), client sales and services, membership recruitment and retention, project planning and process improvements. Mady can be contacted via e-mail.