Our industry celebrates diversity – but demands consistent quality.

SPOTLIGHT
ing year, according to the results
of the American Express
Global Business Travel
Forecast 2010. Hotels have
been particularly hard hit recently
by business travel
cancellations, the study reveals,
while airlines and carrental
firms have hastened
to adjust their capacities to
crumbling demand. And
business travel continues to
be closely scrutinised, even
more so than before. “Despite
tentative signs that the
economic recession will
soon be over, in 2010 every
business trip will still be assessed
for the added contribution
it can make to
achievement of the company’s
targets,” is how Kaveh
Atrak, General Manager
Central Europe at American
Express, summarises the
current trend.
Judging by the industry barometer
EIBTM, things look
good in this respect. 3,300
exhibitors registered more
than 54,200 pre-arranged
customer appointments, an
increase of four percent on
the previous year. Almost
3,800 hosted buyers (up two
percent) and total attendance
in excess of 8,000 were
chalked up in Barcelona,
matching the year-earlier level.
Notwithstanding the difficult
economic situation, suppliers
often rated the fair very
positively. The exhibitor
Visit London, for instance,
was delighted at having to
process new booking inquiries
worth more than £ 52
million, breaking the previous
year’s record, and South
African exhibitor Sandton
Convention Centre expressly
praised the high quality of
congress inquiries, notably
from the association sector.
Meanwhile the global econ-
EIBTM: 3,300 exhibitors registered more than
54,200 pre-arranged customer appointments.
omy also seems to be finding
its feet again. The United
Nations is predicting economic
growth of 2.4 percent
this year – provided the industrial
nations continue to
bolster business activity
with aid programmes. The
UN analysis of the world economic
situation in the coming
year sees economic
growth at its strongest in developing
countries and in
Asia. For China the economists
are pencilling in expansion
of 8.8 percent and for
India 6.5 percent, while developing
countries, having
turned in only a marginal 1.9
increase last year, can reckon
on growth of 5.3 percent.
Economic activity is regaining
momentum. It is on the
financial markets that the
greatest danger still lurks, a
massive speculative bubble
having formed again in recent
months.
Total global economic col-
lapse at the beginning of last
year could be averted only by
nationalising the debt of
practically all big financial institutions.
At the same time
the public authorities cobbled
together gigantic economic
stimulus packages
and central banks pumped
massive amounts of liquidity
into the financial system.
Banks were able to borrow
unlimited sums of money
Economic activity
is regaining
from the central banks at
practically no cost, enabling
them to rack up enormous
speculative gains. And the
stakes for which the financial
sector is now playing are getting
bigger and bigger. In the
1970s the international volume
of foreign investments
and currency transactions
was just twice as high as the
value of real trade. Today currency
speculation alone is already
twenty times higher
than the value of trade in
physical goods. “The financial
markets are accounting
for ever larger shares of
world trade,” says economic
historian Johannes Bähr.
The leading share indices –
Dow Jones, Nikkei und Dax –
have soared since last March
by 50 to 60 percent each.
And the prices of crude oil,
copper and other raw materials
have likewise more than
doubled. This monumental
increase is not underpinned
by any corresponding economic
development. On the
contrary, in many countries
economic output has shrunk
by five percent, and many
corporations are still stuck
obstinately in the red. Yet
again, the financial market is
going its own way. Share
prices and reality are out of
touch once more. DM
18 1/2010