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HAMBURG
Convention Bureau
“Public-private
partnership model”
Matthias Rieger, managing director
of the Hamburg Convention Bureau.
Matthias Rieger, managing director of the Hamburg Convention Bureau, on the
city’s earlier shortcomings as a destination, extension of the congress centre
and a city with more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam together.
TW: In the past meeting planners
often complained that
there was no central contact
for them in Hamburg. When
did the city have a rethink?
Rieger: In point of fact we
spent twenty years in Hamburg
trying to build up an independent
convention bureau.
But owing to differences of
interest among politicians,
associations and business it
didn’t ever work out properly
in the end. Meanwhile, pressure
was building up constantly
from the industry. And
convention bureaus have
since been, or are in the process
of being, set up in practically
all the big cities in Germany.
Worldwide there is already
a whole network anyway.
The feedback from businesses
on our plan for a central
agency that meeting planners
could contact was crystalclear:
We’re all for it, the project
is overdue, but we’ll only
give it our support if the convention
bureau is an independent
municipal institution.
We then designed a public-private
partnership model
as an independent limited lia-
More bridges
than Venice
and Amsterdam
bility company (GmbH) with
seed financing from the city
council and private-sector
backers. The shareholders
are Hamburg Tourismus
GmbH (HHT) and Hamburg
Messe und Congress GmbH
(HMC).
TW: Who are the backers and
what services does the Convention
Bureau provide?
Rieger: We have three strategic
partners, the DEHOGA
German hotel and restaurant
association in Hamburg, the
chamber of commerce and
the airport. There are also preferred
partnerships for three
different service levels with
contributions graded accordingly.
In return we market
Hamburg as a MICE destination
and broker business.
Meeting planners wishing to
hold an event here can approach
us for professional advice.
We will put them in
touch with suitable service
providers, venues and hotels
and obtain quotes for them.
TW: Where does the city’s
appeal to meeting planners
lie?
Rieger: We have spent EUR
1/2010