Download Larry Dwyer

44th ICCA Congress & Exhibition
Montevideo, Uruguay 2005
Study on the Economic Importance
of the Meetings Industry: An Update
A World Tourism Organisation, ICCA, Reed Travel and MPI Project
Professor Dr. Larry Dwyer and Dr. Margaret Deery
for Sustainable Tourism CRC, Australia
Current Study: Measures of economic
contribution of meetings industry
 Meetings industry is important part of tourism
but not reflected properly in official statistics
 Aims to encourage WTO to focus more on the
Meetings Industry and develop common
measures of its economic contribution
 Sponsors: WTO Affiliate Members, Reed Travel
Exhibitions, ICCA and in co-operation with MPI
Background to the Study
 The measurement of tourism activities is not properly
adapted to identify the importance of meetings industry
or its components
 Little agreement on data to be collected
 Many statistics often not collected at all (eg. Organiser
expenditure)
 The statistics are often based on different measures
 Different definitions of ‘meetings’
 Data are created for different purposes, so don't
adequately meet strict statistical requirements
 Varies by country
Prevents developing a global
picture of the meetings industry



Size (demand side measures Vs supply side)
Structure (demand side Vs supply side)
Economic contribution



International statistics not comparable
Different definitions of ‘meetings’ generate different estimates of
their economic contribution
Different economic estimation techniques using different
assumptions about the workings of the economy
Funding (private Vs public)

Trends, outlook

Global Trends: Meetings
What to believe?
• ICCA: 2004 Increase international association
meeting participants
• UIA: 2004 Decline in international association
meetings
• State of the Industry Report (Successful
Meetings): 2004 Increase in all types of meetings
and an expected increase in 2005
Sources of Market Intelligence
• The sources of market intelligence base their findings on
a vast array of methods and definitions
• Information is used mainly for business planning rather
than for government lobbying
• Large organizations such as ICCA provide consistent
annual data, but only on international association
meetings
Sources of Market Intelligence
(contd)
• Other sources of information include:
– Media articles/reports analysis
– Media or association questionnaires of
readers/members
– Business confidence barometers (eg MPI Future
Watch)
– Extrapolation of general trends from city or country
statistics which are statistically valid
A Major Challenge: Definition
of ‘Meetings Industry’
• Activities:
 Organisation
 Promotion
 sales and delivery
• Products/Services:





Corporate, Association and Government Meetings
Corporate Incentives
Seminars
Congresses, Conferences, Conventions
Events, Exhibitions and Fairs
Source: WTO,ICCA,IMP proposal for the ISIC revision process
Definitions
TYPE
Meetings
NO. OF
PARTICIPANT
S
DURATION/
FREQUENCY
NO. OF
COUNTRIES
INVOLVED
OTHER
SOURCE
>15
>6 hours < 2
days
-
-
British
Conference
Market Trends
Survey
(BCMTS)
Up to 250
On average 1
day
-
-
German
Convention
Bureau
> 50
>4 hours
> 3 countries
> 40% foreign
attendees
Instituto de
Turismo de
Espana
> 50
>Regular basis
>3 countries
> 300
> 3 days
> 5 countries
> 40% foreign
attendees
Union of
International
Associations
Conference
< 50
One day or less
-
-
German
Convention
Bureau
International
Convention
> 50
> 2 days
> 3 countries
> 40% foreign
attendees
Instituto de
Turismo de
Espana
International
Meetings
ICCA
Definitions
This table highlights why there is a need
for more work on a unified long-term
solution to achieving consistency of
definition
 The situation regarding statistics for
corporate meetings and even intergovernmental or inter-agency meetings
like the World Bank/IMF is far worse
Aims of the Present Study
 Need to explore role of the TSA to
reflect the real importance of the
Meetings Industry and its contribution
to tourism
 Incorporating meetings explicitly
within the TSA would enhance
credibility of any measurements of
economic contribution of this industry
Tourism Satellite Accounts
 A TSA provides information on the contribution of
tourism to an economy, the industries which most
rely on tourism, and the GDP, employment and trade
impacts of tourism
 The economic importance of the meetings industry is
not reflected in the TSA
 Eg. includes ‘meetings sector’ only indirectly (via
accommodation, tour expenses, food and beverage
etc.), but what about expenditures by meetings
organizers?
 Can TSA be modified to measure economic
importance of the meetings industry?
TSA used in NBES
National Business Events Study 2005
Undertaken by Sustainable Tourism CRC
 www.crctourism.com.au
 Used the TSA for Australia to assess the
Economic Contribution of the Meetings
Industry
 NBES is an initial attempt to develop
consistent and credible techniques of
measurement for meetings industry
Hot Item: WTO recommends new International
Standard Industrial Classification of All
Economic Activities (ISIC)
 Implies recognition of the meetings industry into the
official UN industry classifications code system
 8230 Convention and trade show organizers
 This class includes the organization, promotion and/or
management of events, such as business and trade
shows, conventions, conferences and meetings, whether
or not including the management and provision of the
staff to operate the facilities in which these events take
place.
Implications of ISIC 8230
• An important step towards more credible
statistics on meetings industry
• But - - - while facilitating the measure of
organizer expenditure there is still a need for
participant surveys within the TSA with their
attendant problems
• Also need to move towards consistent
international definitions that can be
operationalized globally
Incorporating the economic importance
of the meetings industry in the TSA
 The project team is developing a standard methodology to
measure the value of the meetings industry based on TSA
 identify the basic data units for collection of statistics
 explore how these fit into existing TSA statistics
 develop survey instruments to capture meetings related
expenditure and costs
 identify the indicators/variables to be used for quarterly
measurement of the performance of the meetings industry
 Create guidelines for the collection of statistics adapted to the
functioning of the TSA
 Describe the roles of the stakeholders in the process to
ensure credibility
Some questions
 How long will it be before a standardized
system will be possible for the meetings
industry?
 Does this mean that established statistical
systems which some countries are using will
need to be changed, or can they be
incorporated as they currently stand?
 What are the next practical steps?
And Finally - - Gracias and g’day