Conclusion

Business travel and tourism has many different impacts, both positive and negative. It has also been noted that the nature of the impact varies between different types of business tourism, different sectors of the industry and different types of destinations. We have suggested that, to date, the business tourism industry does not seem to have been very concerned about its impacts. Finally, we have looked at some ways in which business travel and tourism could be made more sustainable, including the role of new technologies in reducing the demand for business travel and tourism overall.

Discussion points and essay questions

1 Discuss the implications of the distinction between customers and consumers for business tourism organizations.

2 Evaluate the reasons which you think explain why Europe dominates the global business travel market.

3 Discuss the factors that will influence the future size and nature of business travel and tourism demand in Asia.

4 Discuss the ways in which a destination could try to maximize the economic benefits of business travel and tourism while minimizing its economic costs.

5 Critically evaluate the idea that business travel and tourism is less harmful than leisure tourism in terms of its impacts.

6 Discuss the ways in which airlines and hotels have sought to become more environmentally friendly in recent years.

Exercise

1 Select one country of the world and produce a report concerning its domestic, inbound and outbound business travel markets. In your report you should note any difficulties you experience in obtaining suitable data.

2 Select one conference venue or convention centre or exhibition centre and one business travel agency or incentive travel agency. Interview a representative from your two chosen organizations and ask them to outline for you what they consider to be the main impacts, both positive and negative, of business travel and tourism, or at least their relevant sector of it.

Chapter 3. Structure of MICE-tourism sector

On completion of this chapter students should be able to:

• distinguish the main types of MICE activities

• identify their objections

• recognize the players of business travel market

Types of business travel sector activities

“MICE” industry - an acronym for 'meetings, incentives, confer­ences and exhibitions and it is not reflects all aspects of traveling with business purposes. At the same time for the layperson the terms 'travel' and 'tourism' may be synonymous with leisure and pleasure, the importance of business travel is widely acknowledged in official and technical definitions. The World Tourism Organisation’s official definition of tourism, for example, suggests that people travelling for business or professional purposes can also be considered as tourists (WTO, 1993).

In many cases, the terms 'business tourism' and 'business travel' are used inter­changeably as generic terms to describe these different sectors.

In broad terms, business travel comprises all trips whose purpose is linked the traveller's employment or business interests. These trips may be necessary in order to enable the actual work to be carried out; or they may enable the employee to learn how to do their job more effectively; or they may be given by the employer as a reward for a job well done. Most of the forms of travel covered in this book are, therefore, work-related. According to Devidson (2002) they are as follows:

• Individual business travel: comprises the trips made by those whose employment requires them to travel in order to carry out their work. From journalists and politicians to talent-spotters and accident investigators, there is a wide range of jobs that can be done effectively only when those who do them are prepared to accept being away from home and their workplace base regularly as a normal feature of their work.

• Meetings: includes the vast range of events, such as conferences, training sem­inars, product launches and annual general meetings, that are held by companies and associations in order to facilitate communication with and between their employees, customers, shareholders and members.

• Exhibitions: also known as trade fairs, trade shows and consumer shows. Exhibitions of this type are events to which businesses send sales staff in order to display their products - from farm machinery to wedding dresses - to potential customers, who attend in order to buy and/or receive expert information about the goods being exhibited, usually straight from the manufacturers.

• Incentive trips: comprises those trips - usually luxurious and often to attractive destinations - that employees receive from their employer as a prize for winning a competition related to their job, e.g. selling more life insurance policies than anyone else on the staff, or being part of the sales team that increases its sale of photocopiers by a higher percentage than all other teams.

• Corporate hospitality: consists of the often lavish entertainment that companies extend to their most valuable clients or potential clients at prestigious sporting and cultural events. Companies mainly use this form of entertainment as a way of cre­ating goodwill and building rapport with V1P customers and potential customers.

Above mentioned sectors could be subdivided into 'individual business travel' and 'business tourism', the latter including the meetings, exhibitions, incentive travel and corporate hospitality sectors. This subdivision is not arbitrary: it highlights two separate types of activity sharing quite distinct characteristics.

Individual business travel is composed of trips made to carry out duties that are a regular and necessary part of the traveller's employment. Such trips are most often made by the individual travelling alone, and the destination is usually predeter­mined by the demands of the job to be done: the traveller must go to wherever the client to be visited is based, or to where the problem is to be solved, or to where the contract is to be signed, i.e. the destination is fixed. This is the only nondiscre-tionary sector of business travel: the destination is not chosen, but is determined by the object of the work that has to be carried out.

The other sectors, which may be grouped together as business tourism, are discretionary. The destinations for most meeting events, exhibitions, incentive trips and corporate hospitality events are 'floating', i.e. there is a degree of flexibility in the decision as to where they may be held. For this reason, these sectors are 'the prime focus of marketing activities by venues and destinations, because decisions about where the events take place are open to influence' (Rogers, 1998; p.19). Attendance at such events, which constitute a more occasional aspect of working life, often takes the form of group travel, with colleagues travelling together or meeting there.

Referring hack to the wide range of activities and events included here under the term 'business travel', it is clear that:

• there are forms of business travel that are not business related;

• there are forms of business travel that involve very little travel.

An example of the former case would be any conference where the motivation to meet is not to discuss issues related to the delegates' jobs or profession. For instance, many associations meet regularly because their members share an interest in voluntary or charity work (Rotary International), the same faith (the Association of Independent Methodists) or the same hobby (Harley Davidson Riders' Club of Great Britain).

Business travel sectors that involve very little actual travel would be, for example, one-day meetings held in the seminar room of a local hotel, or a group of London-based clients spending an afternoon drinking Pimms, eating strawberries and watching tennis at a corporate entertainment event at Wimbledon.

However, despite their apparent status as exceptions to the rule, all of the above events and activities will be considered as lying firmly within the scope of this book's subject matter. They would certainly all be regarded by suppliers such as conference centres, hotels and catering companies as being in the same general market as the other types of business travel already discussed. And while transport operators such as airlines and high-speed train companies may call into question the use of the term 'business travel' to describe events attended by people who live or work locally, it is unlikely that taxi companies and operators of public transport, for example, would share their concern.

A final point to be emphasised regarding the classification of business travel activ­ities as shown in Figure 1.1 is that, very often, elements of two or more categories are combined in the same event. For example, a motivational conference held for a dozen company executives in Monte Carlo clearly contains aspects of a classic incen­tive trip in addition to the meeting element. Indeed, in the company's desire to use the event as a reward for its executives, the 'conference' clement may simply be a short pep talk from the managing director flown in on the final day for the occasion.

The same type of hybrid events is found in the growing number of conferences that are accompanied by an exhibition on the same theme and usually in the same venue. For example, organisers of a conference on the theme of an aspect of medical research may invite representatives of pharmaceutical companies to buy exhibition space for their stands in a hall adjacent to the conference room. There are three potential advantages of combining events in this way:

• The exhibition earns revenue, which offsets the cost of the conference for organ­isers and delegates.

• It gives the exhibiting companies the opportunity to present their products to an interested market.

• It provides the delegates with an additional reason for attending the event.

Business travel and leisure travel

Those travelling on business often make use of the same services and facilities as leisure travellers. For example, with the exception of charter flights, most airlines carry a combination of leisure and business passengers on most routes, and most hotels accommodate a combination of business and leisure guests; the building that serves as a concert hall one day can be used the next day as a venue for an inter­national conference; and who can tell which of the diners in a hotel restaurant are visiting the city on business and which are there simply for their own pleasure? In particular, those on incentive trips may on occasion appear almost indistinguishable from leisure visitors in terms of the services and facilities they use.

Moreover, all visitors may have need of the destination's information and advi­sory services, telecommunications networks and medical services. And all appreci­ate an attractive and safe environment.

The 'all work and no play' dictum applies absolutely to those travelling on busi­ness-related matters. Leaving aside the hours spent conferencing, negotiating and generally getting the job done, most business travellers, delegates and visitors to trade shows find themselves with time to spare in the places they are visiting.

	Leisure travel	Business travel	But...
Who pays for the trip?	The traveller	The employer	Self-employed people and those attending association events pay for themselves
Who or what determines the destination?	The traveller	The organiser of the event, or the location of the work to be done	Organisers take participants' wishes into account for discretionary forms of business travel
When do trips take place?	In leisure lime Classic holiday periods and at weekends Relatively infrequently, but (holidays) last longer	In working time Mainly outside holiday periods. Monday-Friday Relatively frequently, but for short periods	Many business trips extend into the travellers' evenings and weekends
Planned how far in advance (lead times)?	Holidays booked a few months in advance; short breaks booked a few days in advance	Large events organised years in advance	Individual business travel can happen at very short notice
Who travels?	Anyone with the money and time to travel	Adults; largely managerial level, or those with technical/specialist skills not available locally	Associations draw their memberships from a wider range of people of different ages and backgrounds
What type of destination?	Mainly coastal, mountain, urban and rural	Largely centred on cities in stable, industrialised destinations	Incentive travel destinations are similar to leisure destinations
What type of travelling companions?	Friends and family	Usually unaccompanied in the case of individual business travel; or with colleagues in the case of business tourism	Family members may be included in incentive trips or in conference attendance

Table 1.1 Comparison of leisure and business travel

Very often, social and cultural elements are programmed into conferences, for example, to give delegates the opportunity to relax and network together. Thus, business vis­itors engaging in activities such as sightseeing excursions, shopping, and cultural pursuits add to the level of leisure consumed at the destination.

In addition, many of those travelling on business choose to extend their trip by, for example, spending a few extra days at the destination for leisure purposes before or after the event they are there to attend. Similarly, many of those attend­ing a business tourism event decide to take along a friend or partner with them on the trip. That friend or partner will normally be free during the event to enjoy the attractions that the destination has to offer, thus adding to the number of those who visit for lei sure-related reasons. The question of how business travel can generate additional leisure tourism is the theme of Chapter

Structure of the business travel market

Although, as has been stated, business travel and leisure travel share many facilities and services, the business travel sectors depend, for their effective functioning, on a considerable number of stakeholders whose role is concerned largely or exclu­sively with providing the facilities and services for this market.

The structure of business travel market is the following:

Business travel sector	Buyers	Intermediaries	Suppliers
Individual business travel	Corporate sector and other types of organisation (voluntary sector, government bodies, etc.) Possibly through their own: in-house travel managers/coordinators secretaries/PAs	Business/corporate travel agencies Travel management companies Possibly through: implants dedicated online booking services	Transport providers Accommodation and catering operators Leisure and recreation suppliers
Meetings	Corporate sector Government sector local regional national intergovernmental Associations professional trade fraternal religious, etc. Possibly through their own: in-house travel managers in-house conference organizers secretaries/PAs	Professional conference organisers/meeting planners Venue-finding agencies Production companies Destination management companies/ground handlers Specialist marketing consortia Destination marketing organisations	Transport providers Accommodation and catering operators Leisure and recreation suppliers Conference centres Management training centres Hotels' meetings facilities Universities Unusual venues Audiovisual contractors Telecommunications companies (video/satellite conferencing facilities) Interpreters
Incentive travel	Corporate sector, possibly through: in-house travel managers in-house conference organisers	Incentive travel houses Business travel agencies Destination management companies/ground handlers Destination marketing organisations	Transport providers Accommodation and catering operators Leisure and recreation suppliers
Exhibitions	Manufacturers and service providers	Exhibition organisers Exhibition contractors Destination marketing organisations	Transport providers Accommodation and catering operators Leisure and recreation suppliers Exhibition centres Stand contractors
Corporate hospitality	Corporate sector	Corporate hospitality agents PR companies Event management companies	Marquee contractors Caterers Historic and unusual venues Sporting/cultural events promoters Activity operators

Table 2. Structure of the business travel market

Private companies, large and small, are clearly the main consumers and providers of business travel services, although they are by no means the only types of organ­isation active in this market. For example, representatives and employees of govern­ment bodies and agencies also need to travel and meet regularly in order to function effectively; members of associations of all types are important consumers in the conferences sector; and organisations such as universities attend specialist consumer shows to present the courses they teach, with the aim of recruiting students.

The public sector is also present in this market as both supplier and intermediary. For example, many conference centres are owned by local authorities, and destination marketing organisations are almost always funded through a combination of public and private sector support. The need for public and private sector players to work together effectively in partnership in order to ensure the success of the business travel industry in any destination is paramount, a point underlined by Dwyer and Mistilis (1997; p.230): 'Strategies and solutions for developing the [business travel] industry will be generated in some combination of both the public and private arenas; an overarching constraint could be the nature of the interplay between these sectors, including their ability to work together in a proactive way for shared goals.'

Regarding the suppliers and intermediaries in the business travel and tourism market (Table 2) shows that many are common to almost all sectors: destination marketing organisations, transport providers, accommodation and catering opera­tors, and suppliers of leisure and recreation facilities. In addition to these, however, each sector has its own specialist suppliers of the products and services it requires in order to function effectively, as well as its own specialist intermediaries. The role of these suppliers and intermediaries will be explored in the sectoral chapters that follow this one. In the meantime, it is worth noting that the great number and var­iety of these suppliers and intermediaries provides some indication of the extent of the challenges that must be met in coordinating their activities in order to provide buyers with a quality service.

The end consumers of business travel

Not included in the range of players shown in Table 2 are those who constitute another key category of stakeholders in the business travel market, the end con­sumers of business travel - those who make the trips and attend the seminars and trade fairs, for example, that their employers pay for. While in the leisure travel market the purchaser is usually also the end consumer, in the business tourism market this is not necessarily the case. Apart from self-employed people and those paying to attend certain types of association meeting, the person who travels is rarely the person who is financing the trip.

As continuing success in this market clearly depends upon satisfying not only the buyers but also the end consumers of the services, the vital question arises: who are the business travellers upon whose activities this industry depends?

As always, generalisations are difficult in a market as diverse as this one. But, contrary perhaps to much public opinion, business travellers are not always white-collar workers employed in the upper echelons of their organisations. As shown above, those in possession of technical or specialist skills are often called upon to travel in order to carry out tasks away from their normal places of employment. For example, the contributions of the photographers who travel to a major sports event to capture it on film are just as important to their employers as the written text of the accompanying article produced by their journalist colleagues.

Almost by definition, however, a large percentage of those travelling on business are managerial and sales staff, who have the power either to make decisions or to influence the decisions of others. They have the authority to negotiate on behalf of their companies, governments or professional bodies, for example, and the work they are employed to do is of such a complex or sensitive nature that it can only be carried out face to face with others.

Contributing further to the question of who actually travels on business, Middleton (1994; p.B-10) asks: does the business travel market comprise a relatively small number of individuals who make a large number of business trips, or a rela­tively large number of individuals making fewer visits? His answer, admittedly based on partial evidence, suggests that the former possibility is the case, and that there is a vital core of frequent repeat visitors: 'At the top end of the business market, indi­viduals are making over 20 business trips per annum. It seems probable that less than 5% of adults are responsible for the great bulk of business travel.'

Business travel destinations

It has already been indicated that most business travel is to urban destinations. Cities are where head offices, factories, and conference and exhibition centres are located; they are also where the majority of the facilities that support the business travel market are to be found, e.g. hotels, transport termini and cultural/entertain­ment resources used by business visitors.

However, there are a number of differences between the use of cities by business visitors and their use by leisure tourists. While leisure visitors are principally attracted to a select group of cities offering a wealth of heritage/shopping/enter­tainment attractions, business travellers' trips require them to visit a wider range, including towns and cities of a largely commercial or industrial character. It may, therefore, be argued that business tourism brings economic benefits to places untouched by leisure visitors. Within cities, leisure visitors in their choice of accommodation and activities tend to remain in close proximity to the city centre, whereas business visitors may be much more dispersed in respect of where they stay and where they go to carry out their business. Depending on their mode of transport, for example, they may use airport hotels or motels close to major roads. Their business may also take them far from the city centre to industrial estates or to exhibition centres, which are often situated between the city itself and its airport, where land is cheaper.

Just as the vast majority of business travel is undertaken by a small percentage of the general population, the destinations in which the lion's share of the world's total business travel takes place are concentrated in a small number of countries. While developing countries are enjoying growing rates of success in attracting holiday-makers to their beaches and for cultural diversion, industrialised nations continue to dominate the business tourism market in terms of both demand and supply. The immense volume of commerce carried out between and within the world's main trading blocs provides the motivation for much of the world's business travel. The industrialised countries are often those that are best placed to provide the services and security upon which business tourism depends.

Even within the countries of the industrialised world, the amount of business travel is distributed unequally, for example, the principal destinations for Europe's meetings and exhibitions industry are concentrated into a few zones within the continent.

It is interesting to note that many of Europe's principal leisure tourism regions find themselves outside the business travel zones.

Discussion points and essay questions

1. Select two of the types of business travel and tourism. Discuss the similarities and differences between these, as forms of business travel and tourism.

2. Evaluate the extent to which business travel and tourism is different from leisure tourism.

3. Critically evaluate the role that business tourism can play in the economy of industrial cities like Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

Exercise

You should individually, or in a group, carry out a literature search of the business tourism field. Then try to answer the following questions:

1. How many texts and articles could you find?

2. Which sectors of business travel and tourism did they concentrate upon?

3. Which topics and subjects did they cover?

4. In what ways, if any, were you surprised by the results of your search?

Chapter 3.1. Meetings

On completion of this chapter students should be able to:

• understand the term “meeting”

• classify meetings

• recognize styles of meetings

• identify the buyers and supplies

The practice of meeting to exchange and disseminate information, once so vital to our collective survival, remains an essential feature of the professional, political, spiritual and recreational lives of a significant proportion of the population.

The conference industry is highly complex, comprising of a multiplicity of buyer and supplier organizations and businesses. For many conference organizers ('the buyers'), the organization of conferences and similar events is oniy a part of their job, and often one for which they have received little formal training and may only have a temporary responsibility. Suppliers include conference venues and destinations, accommodation providers and transport companies, agencies and specialist contractors. Both buyers and suppliers are welded together and supported by national bodies and associations, trade media and educational institutions, each contributing to the overall structure of this fast developing, global industry.

This chapter looks at the roles and characteristics of:

• the buyers (corporate, association, public sector, entrepreneurs)

• the suppliers (venues, destinations, other suppliers)

• agencies and intermediaries

• other important organizations {trade associations, trade media, national tourism organizations, consultants, educalional institutions).

The origins of the meeting industry

Russian President hosting the Summit at Konstantinovsky Palace in Saint-Petersburg, the Royal College of Nursing holding its annual conference in Bournemouth, members of the Interna­tional Congress and Convention Association gathering for their assembly and congress in Montevideo, shareholders of Microsoft or HSBC attending the company's annual general meeting, the sales force of GlaxoSmith Kline coming together for a regular briefing or training event, or their high achievers jetting off for an incentive-cum-meeting trip to an exotic overseas destination.

The different events described above have one thing in com­mon: they are all to do with bringing people together, face-to-face, to exchange ideas and information, to discuss and in some cases negotiate, to build friendships and closer business relationships, to encourage better performance by individuals and organiza­tions. They are different facets of the same dynamic, international, economically vibrant conference industry. The terms used ('sum­mit', 'meeting', 'conference', 'assembly', 'convention', 'congress', 'AGM', 'briefing', 'training', 'incentive') may vary, and the events themselves may have different formats and emphases, but the essential ingredients and objectives are the same.

Meetings are sometimes held around conference tables.

In a meeting, two or more people come together for the purpose of discussing a (usually) predetermined topic such as business or community event planning, often in a formal setting.

In addition to coming together physically (in real life, face to face), communication lines and equipment can also be set up to have a discussion between people at different locations, e.g. a conference call or an e-meeting.

In organizations, meetings are an important vehicle for and personal contact human communication. They are so common and pervasive in organizations, however, that many take them for granted and forget that, unless properly planned and executed, meetings can be a terrible waste of precious resources.

Because of their importance, a career in professional meeting planning has emerged in recent years. In addition, the field of Meeting Facilitation has formalized with an internationally-recognized "Certified Professional Facilitator" designation through the International Association of Facilitators (IAF)

Meetings are often held in conference rooms.