| Business
Tourism Business
tourism is now increasingly referred to by the buzz term,
"MICE". Nothing to do
with small furry creatures, it stands for Meetings, Incentives,
Conferences and Exhibitions. To the uninitiated, business
tourism can appear a very complex sector.
What is it?
There
are lots of impressive statistics bandied about, including the
seven million
international visitors to Britain every year,
who are here on a business trip. They spend £3.4 billion
and as many as 40 per cent of business travellers return with their
families as leisure visitors. Many of you will understandably want
your share of this lucrative market, but that's possible until
you fully understand the sector.
Corporate
meetings are big business. Compared to conferences they are relatively
small scale. The demand for meetings isn't just restricted to
major venues holding large numbers. In fact there appears to
be an increasing trend toward smaller conferences and meetings
and quirky, unusual venues are very much in vogue.
Whilst a meeting seeks to communicate or educate, an incentive is used as a motivational tool for participants often as a means
of increasing sales, loyalty,
better customer service or encouraging teamwork. Incentive trips
tend to be "once in a lifetime experience" and delegates are offered
opportunities to do things that "ordinary visitors" wouldn't be
allowed to do. These may be very upmarket added extras or behind
the scenes tours.
Since
they are meant to be motivational, it's important that incentive
trips are faultlessly organised. Incentive
Houses provide
incentive programmes through examining
corporate business goals and creating specific measurement
criteria and using the appropriate promotional materials.
Destination Management Companies (commonly
referred to as DMCs) are specialist company that can organise
all aspects of incentives, meetings and events. They have detailed
and specialised local knowledge so can offer a wide range of services
depending on the needs of their client, including transport
and transfers, hotel accommodation, catering
and entertainment.
Conferences
are still major contributors to business tourism, despite the expected
growth of video conferencing. Exhibitions also still
attract high numbers of trade visitors and consumers.
Business visitors coming to the UK to attend exhibitions or trade
fairs form a small but growing segment. Britain has over 37 major
exhibition venues hosting between them, over 200 annual trade fairs.
Corporate
Hospitality is another aspect of business tourism. From
April to August, traditionally known as ‘the season’ and
depending to whom you speak, are the glitziest in town with choices
ranging
from the Derby,
concerts, the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, and numerous
shows and spectacles
to entertain your clients or delegates in true British style.
Where
to find more information
We have included some handy web links below to take
you to
the experts for some opportunities, editorial and statistics.
The
Business Tourism Partnership is an essential starting point for
more information, including it's excellent
overview of the business tourism sector that can be downloaded
from the site http://www.businesstourismpartnership.com/pubs/briefing.pdf
The
Exhibitions Venue Association (EVA) provides a promotional and
information
network for the UK’s major exhibition venues
www.exhibitionvenues.com
If you are looking for stand designers, builders, contractors
and suppliers, visit www.beca.org.uk which is the site of the British
Exhibition Contractors Association (BECA).
The British Association of Conference Destinations Measures the key
characteristics of the UK conference and meetings market. It includes
a section on the London market. Published annually on www.bacd.org.uk
The UK Conference Market Survey contains results of interviews
with 300 association (not for profit) organisers and 300 corporate
(for profit) buyers. Published annually with quarterly updates
by Meetings Industry Association at www.meetings.org.uk
There is an assortment of reports detailing international meeting
trends published by Union of International Associations at www.uia.org
Barclaycard publishes an annual survey of 2,500 Barclaycard holders
examining the changing habits, requirements and opinions of business
travellers at www.company.barclaycard.co.uk
The 2003 European Cities Monitor gives the views of senior executives
from 500 European companies at www.lfc.co.uk
This is just the tip of the iceberg and in future features
the Tourism Network will attempt to get to the bottom of how to
estimate
direct expenditure benefits of a conference to a local area. We
will also be looking at some new websites and MICE guides soon
to be unleashed on the market.
What would you like to know about the MICE market - let us know
as we'll try to cover it soon. Just email Mary Tebje
Mary Tebje
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