Business Tourism Partnership Mission

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• Strength of British science and medicine - British academics regularly hold key positions within the decision-making Boards of the associations • Ease and speed of VAT reclaim • English language which is now the language of choice for international meetings • The UK is one of the most attractive destinations culturally for international delegates, ensuring that congresses held in the UK are better attended and more profitable than those held elsewhere. However:- • With the exception of one or two cities, the UK is not able to offer large-scale public subvention of conferences, venues or delegates. This is done in other cities around the world and can be a deciding factor as overall costs of conventions increase • Public finance for new products and improvements to existing conference facilities has disappeared in the UK – except for Wales where a grant of up to £50,000 for such projects can be obtained • The economic importance of conferences to a country is far more recognised by the UK’s main competitor countries than it is in the UK. Obtaining governmental non-financial support for a conference bid is very difficult or impossible. For example, it was not until 2002 that the Prime Minister agreed to “front” a conference bid video for the first time ever, whereas leaders and senior statesmen from other nations have been supporting conferences in this way for many years. • Despite the VAT recovery systems in place, not every cost can be recovered. Most other EU member states have lower concession VAT rates for tourists and conference delegates • The importance of the accompanying exhibition, with its attendant long distance freight movements, is also affected by the UK’s high tax on diesel • Despite active ambassador programmes, the academic world is still hesitant to bid for international meetings due to a perceived heavy workload, lack of knowledge of the available convention facilities and lack of awareness of the industry support available to them. They are also less enthusiastic about their own home towns as a destinations compared to their European counterparts • The lack of a purpose-built congress centre in London, with a capacity for over 3,000 delegates, is preventing many high profile meetings, which would only consider a capital city, coming to the UK. Equally the general lack of large scale integrated hotel and meeting facilities, such as they have in the USA and the Far East, is also preventing the UK from winning many of the 29
large conventions. However, this applies to most of Europe and, with space at a premium and public money not forthcoming, the whole European region is at a disadvantage • The fact that the UK has not adopted the European single currency is a setback in that organising events in the UK can become more expensive with currency transaction bank charges. Despite all the above and whatever impacts technology, global economies and terrorism are likely to have, there is still the desire amongst international associations to meet, press the flesh and exchange views which will always remain. According to ICCA, the UK has continued to host a similar number of the international association congresses as in recent years (270 in 2005), although it has dropped to fourth place in the league table behind the USA, Germany and Spain. The Business Tourism Partnership is working to encourage a more collaborative and cohesive approach to winning more international association conferences, particularly through the involvement of British embassies and consulates, British Council offices overseas, VisitBritain staff and key Government departments in the UK in the research and bidding processes. It is also actively lobbying for the construction of a major purpose-built convention centre for London. d) EXHIBITIONS An ‘exhibition’ was defined by the Exhibitions Liaison Council in 1995 as a presentation of products or services to an invited audience with the objective of inducing a sale or informing the visitor. It is a form of three dimensional advertising where, in many instances, the product can be seen, handled, assessed by demonstration, and in some cases even smelt or tasted. In general terms, exhibitions can be further defined according to the market/visitors they target: - Trade (or business-to-business/b2b) exhibitions are aimed primarily at those working within a particular trade sector, and are forums where related businesses meet face-to-face in order to fulfil a multitude of objectives - Public/Consumer (or business-to-consumer/b2c) exhibitions are aimed at either the wider general public or focused consumer groups. A charge is often made for admission. 30
Page 1 and 2: BUSINESS TOURISM briefi ng AN OVERV
Page 3 and 4: 1. INTRODUCTION Business tourism in
Page 5 and 6: income it generates is also retaine
Page 7 and 8: • 12% are multi-purpose venues (e
Page 9 and 10: Business Tourists from Overseas Inb
Page 11 and 12: Table 2.2 Overseas Business Visitor
Page 13 and 14: o London o Birmingham o Manchester
Page 15 and 16: Table 3.1 Wales’ Share of Busines
Page 17 and 18: 4. BUSINESS EVENTS This section exa
Page 19 and 20: Trends and Issues The health of the
Page 21 and 22: Economic Benefits Research* underta
Page 23 and 24: Future Trends and Issues • The de
Page 25 and 26: 60%). The International Congress an
Page 27 and 28: • Many convention bureaux run con
Page 29: potential delegates seek to travel
Page 33 and 34: - The UK exhibition industry genera
Page 35 and 36: contact, customer interaction and t
Page 37 and 38: Nevertheless, a thriving industry e
Page 39 and 40: f) CORPORATE EVENTS AND CORPORATE H
Page 41 and 42: In general, the corporate events an
Page 43 and 44: Marquees etc. A number of these ass
Page 45 and 46: The efforts to raise standards in t
Page 47 and 48: suppliers, purchase influencers, co
Page 49 and 50: communications targeted directly at
Page 51 and 52: Visit Wales Visit Wales offers a nu
Page 53 and 54: 6. BUSINESS EVENTS AND CREATIVE ENT
Page 55 and 56: Events Sector Link to Creative Econ
Page 57 and 58: sustainable events. To this end, th
Page 59 and 60: e accessed via the Universities and
Page 61 and 62: Thames Valley University, Ealing, p
Page 63 and 64: Further details are available from:
Page 65 and 66: MPI European Office, 22 Route de Gr
Page 67 and 68: 8. CAREERS IN THE INDUSTRY Finding
Page 69 and 70: smallness does often ensure that th
Page 71 and 72: conference marketing would be an as
Page 73 and 74: 9. LIST OF REFERENCE LITERATURE The
Page 75 and 76: 10. THE BUSINESS TOURISM PARTNERSHI
Page 77 and 78: Events Industry Alliance (EIA) 113
Page 79 and 80: Venuemasters The Workstation,15 Pat
Page 81:
Business Tourism Partnership: Trade
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Business Tourism Partnership Mission

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