Stats

Cost is the big issue for travel buyers

According to a survey conducted by the Business Travel Show cost will remain the big issue for buyers in 2012

Over 250 corporate travel buyers took part in the survey which also revealed the Olympics, the introduction of stronger travel policies, the economy and the rise in travel alternatives as other issues facing the industry.

The survey results are as follows:

What is the overriding issue facing business travel in 2012?

Cost                                                        73%

The Olympics                                         11%

Introducing stronger policies                     8%

The economy                                             4%

Rise in travel alternatives                          4%

What will be the biggest change in your travel buying for 2012? 

Cost and expenditure                              30%

Enforcing policy compliance                  21%

Getting more from suppliers                   19%

Introducing new technology                   17%

Increasing use of travel alternatives         3%

What is your top tip for getting more with a reduced budget?

Book ahead                                           38%

Shop around                                          30%

Haggle and negotiate                            18%

Force travellers to stick to policy           8%     

Travel less                                              5%                 

How frequently are you using travel alternatives compared to one year ago?

More                                                    50%

The same                                             49%

Less                                                     1%

_{Sundial Group reveal important meeting findings}

Following a recent survey sent to over 4000 event planners and bookers, Sundial Group has unveiled some major trends expected for the meetings industry in 2012.

Sundial Group conducted a survey in November 2011 with a focus on providing insight into the meetings industry for the future, most specifically with a spotlight on meetings and events in 2012. The meetings overview survey has produced statistics on fundamental topics such as budgets of meeting planners and types of events for 2012, as well as most influential factors for selecting venues. The results provide vital insight into the industry and have produced particularly valuable information for venues, agents and all kinds of suppliers to the meetings industry.

With three quarters of respondents reporting the same or increased meetings budgets for next year it is expected that many organisations are looking to invest in their people in 2012. The focus of these meetings appears to be towards smaller events with about 75% of meetings planned for 25 or less attendees. A preference for day meetings was noted with 65% planning 10 or more against 40% planning 10 or more residential meetings.

However, when it comes to venue selection the vast majority, 90%, agrees that using a dedicated venue is ‘important', ‘very important' or ‘essential'. More than 50% agree that a countryside location is preferable with less than 10% demanding city centres. Top priority when selecting a venue lies with ‘value for money', 45%, with about 30% saying previous experience was their key consideration. These statistics suggest that event bookers will remain loyal to trusted venue partners that offer value for money packages.

Training and team development will continue to be a major focal point for meetings and events next year, with 56% of event bookers stating that training will be the most important influence when booking events. The majority, 59% expect to hold 1 to 5 team development events in 2012 and the key focus for these events will be ‘developing as a team' (47%) with less than 15% seeing ‘having fun' as a principle goal.

“Sundial's clients are among the most experienced and knowledgeable meeting planners in the UK and we invest a great deal of energy in understanding their point of view and priorities,” says managing director, Tim Chudley. “We believe that these survey results represent a truly insightful snapshot of the UK conference centre sector trends as we go into 2012. The survey results back up our belief that success for Sundial, in the current tough market conditions, will come from offering fair, transparent, all inclusive pricing and working hard to continue to earn the loyalty of our clients with every booking.”

Sundial Group own and operate three specialist conference hotels in country house locations across the UK, Northamptonshire meeting venue, Highgate House, Warwickshire meeting venue Woodside and Surrey meeting venue, Barnett Hill. The multi-award-winning family run hospitality group have over 45 years experience in the meetings industry and has held BDRC Continental's ‘Best Value for Money' Venue Group title consistently since 2008. For more information about Sundial Group and its subsidiary companies please visit www.sundialgroup.com.

Eibtm 2011 Industry Trends And Market Share Report

Rob Davidson presents the global outlook

“Within the meetings and events industry, there is a greater degree of optimism for the year ahead than general business confidence might indicate”

The report, compiled by Rob Davidson, identifies key trends for the meetings and incentives market, which delivered insight into the global economic situation we find ourselves in, and how the meetings and events industry is responding.

“Without doubt, the economy and how we deal with uncertainty in world markets is the biggest issue facing our industry at this time,” says Davidson. “Only economic growth can reverse the weakening in the global recovery and as an industry it is imperative that we now demonstrate that we can be part of the solution rather than a cost to businesses. Over the past few years, we have learned to operate effectively in volatile markets by using innovative solutions and by cooperating with our stakeholders and each other in new and imaginative ways in order to meet the challenges head-on. There can be no doubt that this spirit of cooperation and collaboration has already created stronger intra-industry relationships that will last for years to come.”

Key Findings:

In terms of macro-economics, the prediction (from the International Monetary Fund) is that global growth will moderate to about four per cent through 2012, down from over five per cent in 2010. But real gross domestic product in the advanced economies is projected to expand at a relatively weak pace of only two percent in 2012. However, even this relatively modest prediction assumes that European policymakers contain the crisis in the Euro area and that volatility in global financial markets does not escalate.

However, within the meetings and events industry there is a greater degree of optimism than in the economy as a whole. Most analysts predict that corporate meetings demand will continue to grow worldwide, approaching peak 2008 levels by year-end 2012 and that rates for meetings venues will rise faster in 2012 than in 2011.

In his continued analysis Rob explains that one key source has suggested that the price differential between second- and third-tier cities compared with top-tier destinations (generally, capital cities) is also expected to widen, and if this transpires, that will mean more opportunities for second- and third-tier cities in Europe and elsewhere.

The outlook for the association market is generally agreed to be buoyant too as new specialist professions proliferate and new associations continue to be created. One key survey cited in the Industry Trends and Market Share Report notes that associations' revenue from the exhibitions that accompany their conference has remained stable and that levels of sponsorship are expected to increase in the year ahead.

BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Economies:

The BRICs continue to be the engine of the global recovery. Most are currently enjoying both strong domestic demand and a healthy outflow of exports even if their growth rates have moderated in 2011, a trend widely foreseen as many emerging market economies, such as China, have been tightening monetary policy in response to rising inflation in the effort to engineer a ‘soft landing’ for themselves.

The other BRIC to watch closely in the years ahead is Brazil. That populous nation is set to overtake the UK to become the world’s sixth biggest economy this year, according to projections from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The EIU’s chief economist on Brazil attributed that country’s surge up the table to a growing consumer class and a booming trade relationship with China, a country in great need of commodities such as soya and iron ore. Rob Davidson predicts that there will be rapid growth in the volume of meetings held between Chinese companies and the companies in regions such as Africa and Brazil that are supplying it with the commodities it needs.

Technology:

Meeting professionals have begun to recognise that it has become much easier to extend the impact of an event beyond the four walls of the meeting room and that hybrid events can multiply an event’s impact and can even attract new attendees for future events.

The full research can be downloaded from the EIBTM website at www.eibtm.com.

NEC recycling

As part of its drive to be one of the greenest venues in the UK, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) has recently taken the decision to send its waste fridges and other electrical equipment to a specialist centre to be recycled.

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The latest stats to help you keep on top of events industry trends

Opportunities for Growth in the UK Events Industry

The recent report present by The Event Industry Forum and the Business Visits and Events Partnership contained encouraging data about how the indusry is set to grow and the role it could play in the long term success of UK PLC. The report says:

'The UK events industry presents an opportunity for the UK to be the global business destination of choice and at the same time, create real growth for UK events by generating business opportunities for local firms leading to the formation of vital international business and research networks. The UK enjoys a hard-earned global reputation, and leaders from industries around the world want to hold their events here in the UK.'

Defining the value to the UK

Annual income from events:

Other statistics:

•   No. of businesses in the sector = 25,000
•   No. of people employed = 530,000 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs

Invisible benefits

The sector also provides an ‘invisible’ benefit in its export earnings potential. Many of the leading global exhibition organising companies are UK based, and they lead the world in the development of cutting edge, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) exhibitions and trade fairs. The profits generated from staging events across the world return significant export income to UK Plc.

Prospects for music events and festivals

The music and festivals market will grow significantly in future years. Although the recession has had an impact on some events, particularly some of the smaller festivals that do not always have the resources behind them to underwrite difficult years, the long term trends towards greater leisure time and demand for entertainment are positive. The UK’s strong musical and festival heritage also makes this a potentially strong market for attracting visitors to the UK.

•   7,000 major outdoor events held each year, 700 folk festivals held each year    in the UK
•   No. of music licences issued up by 10% to just under 100,000p.a.
•   Between 2005 and 2009 there was an average annual increase of more than
• 1.64 million adults attending outdoor festivals and events in the UK
•  More than 50,000 (2008) people employed in the UK’s live music industry

Sydney publishes positive industry research

Business Events Sydney (BESydney), has released the second phase of its Beyond Tourism Benefits: Measuring the social legacies of business events research, which quantitatively examines the extensive social, innovation and knowledge benefits of business events.

“Our industry has long struggled to measure the important legacy effects of hosting conferences and conventions,” says acting chief executive officer of BESydney, Lyn Lewis-Smith. “This research is a huge step in the right direction, we believe this is the first quantitative research examining this subject.”

The key outcome of the research was an innovative framework developed to classify and understand the diverse and valuable benefits outside of the tourism sector. Five broad legacy categories, social, intrinsic, practice, economic and attitudinal, comprise the framework and relate to benefits delivered to delegates, sponsors and exhibitors, professional bodies, the host destination and even the wider community.

The lifeblood of any business event, delegates are the benefactors of a large number of the legacies identified. Over 90% of delegates surveyed believe that congresses have facilitated the dissemination of new knowledge, ideas, techniques, materials and technologies and 85% indicate that they have applied these new insights to their professional practice.

Collaboration is a key outcome from the shared social interactions created at business events – 95% of respondents agreed business events fostered networking that led to the sharing of knowledge and ideas, while almost 60% agreed events either acted as a catalyst for research collaboration (58%) or resulted in business relationships (57%).

The research also found that legacies extended to sponsors and exhibitors. Those surveyed reported an important economic legacy, with 90% confirming they gained product exposure and awareness, and also obtained leads for further business.

And at a time when the education and training of the young workforce is so topical, the research revealed that business events equip the destination’s workforce with skills and knowledge and foster global networks and collaborative projects to drive innovation. 82% agreed that the events exposed local delegates to cutting edge research and the world’s best practice and 76% agreed the capacity of the professional sector was enhanced post-event.

From a destination’s perspective, the host city (for this research, Sydney) was shown to also benefit from a wide range of valuable legacies. Sydney’s reputation for driving social change and action was enhanced (52% agree) and the business events increased the attractiveness of the local education sector for delegates from outside of Sydney (60% agree).

Sydney also received a positive wrap, as a conference destination. The majority of respondents (87%) agreed that the conference destination was suitable for hosting global, world-class business events, congresses and meetings. 

Lyn Lewis-Smith confirms, “The time is right to harness the potential of the global business events industry. We will continue to champion a broader and deeper evaluation of the impact of business events.”

The next stage of this research will be global. The Future Convention Cities Initiative (FCCI) has also selected UTS to conduct similar studies across some of its seven member cities (San Francisco, London, Abu Dhabi, Seoul, Sydney, Durban and Toronto).

The full Beyond Tourism Benefits: measuring the social legacies of business events report can be accessed at http://www.businesseventssydney.com.au.

BVEP subvention report

Some key findings from this crucially important report published this week. For more details please click on one of the links below

The budgets for subvention and bid support activity in the UK are significantly lower than those for many international competitors. The average annual subvention budget for the UK destinations surveyed is just £22,450 (excluding in kind contributions) compared to an average of £314,147 for the overseas destinations surveyed, all of which are provided from individual cities or municipal governments’ budgets. 86 per cent of overseas destinations thought their budgets for subvention would remain the same beyond 2012.

The destinations that the UK is most often struggling to compete against due to the levels of subvention, in kind support or sheer costly efforts made to secure the conference are:

• Barcelona
• Cape Town
• Copenhagen
• Hong Kong
• Istanbul
• Malaysia
• Monaco
• Paris
• Seoul
• Sydney, Melbourne and Australia overall
• Singapore
• Vancouver
• Vienna

The UK exhibition market – top sectors showing increased attendance and growth:

1   Catering and food processing

2   Energy, power and water

3   Industry and manufacturing

4   B2B (business services)

5   Books/publishing

6   Retail(ing)

7   Broadcasting and computers

8   Creative industries

UK world leader subjects with potential for future events

1   Specialist science

2   Education

3   Importers of wine

4   Most monitored people on Earth – security

5   Retail

6   Off shore wind power

7   Marine renewals

Visitor Attractions in England Boosted by 3% Increase in 2010

Admissions to England’s visitor attractions rose by 3 per cent in 2010 according to VisitEngland’s Annual Visitor Attractions Survey. The boost in visits was driven predominantly by free attractions which increased by 6 per cent with paid attractions reporting an overall decline of 1 per cent  reflecting the predisposition of the nation to tighten its belt during times of economic uncertainty. 

The majority of the top twenty free attractions were museums or art galleries, with the British Museum retaining its top spot with 5.8million visitors followed by the Tate Modern, National Gallery and Natural History Museum.  Regional museums and galleries also featured heavily including the Ashmolean Museum, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Museums Sheffield and the World Museum Liverpool. 

The top free attractions...

The top paid for attractions...

  Would you like to submit your own research for inclusion on this page? Email info@eventsourindustry.co.uk for details