9
S UTTERWORTH E I N E M A N N 0261-5177(95)00020-8 Tourism Management, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 305-313, 1995 Copyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0261-5177/95 $10.00 + 0.00 Business tourism: a study of the market for hotel-based meetings and its contribution to Wales's tourism Glyn Wootton and Terry Stevens Swansea Institute of Higher Education, Faculty of Leisure, Tourism & Healthcare, Mount Pleasant, Swansea SA1 6ED, Wales Wales has always been relatively dependent on the declining seaside holiday market and finding new and sustainable markets has become a priority. This article looks at the value of business-related tourism to Wales and reports on a survey of the hotel-based meetings and conference segment. From a survey of 74 hotels an estimate for the value of this segment in the order of £294 million is offered; four times as much as official estimates of 'all' business travel to Wales. It concludes that the importance of business tourism, and of meetings-related travel to Wales, is significantly underestimated and has potential for further development and promo- tion. Keywords: business tourism, hotels, meetings, conferences A critical aspect of tourism to Wales over the last decade or more has been the above-average depend- ence on the domestic seaside holiday market. ' The decline in this sector has been particularly heavily felt in Wales and as a result finding new and sustainable markets has become a priority, z One such market could be that of business tourism. Past estimates have suggested that Wales only attracts a small share of business tourism. The principal source of statistical data on the volume and value of tourism within the UK is the United King- dom Tourism Survey (UKTS). In the UKTS, a sample of adults (age 15+) are drawn by random selection throughout the UK and an accumulated sample of 73 000 UK residents are interviewed by questionnaire providing information on a range of tourism characteristics including trip purpose (of one night or more) and spending. There are, however, two chronic failings with UKTS for the calculation of business tourism. First, UKTS does not include same-day travel in the UK and, second, UKTS is a household-based survey, when business travellers are probably one of the most difficult groups to catch at home for survey purposes, especially since UKTS response rates for all adults are only around 60%. 3 Information on overseas business travel is given by International Passenger Survey (IPS), which is a continuous large-scale survey of visitors entering and leaving the UK by major air and sea ports. The survey is generally reliable for the identification of 'purpose of trip' although it is probable that many smaller meetings, and those that include a 'below the line' element, are unrecorded. It is possible that the real size of Wales's business tourism market is underestimated. The authors therefore carried out research to look at the con- tribution that business-related tourism makes to Wales's tourism industry as a whole. The research focuses on the market for hotel- based meetings and conferences and offers an esti- mate of the value of this segment. As there is no definitive source that lists all of those hotels hosting meetings and conferences, a sample of hotels was selected and data collected by means of a telephone questionnaire survey. The hotels were asked how many events they had hosted in the previous 12 months, how many delegates had attended, how long each event had lasted, and what their delegate rates were. They were also asked a number of other questions and these are alluded to below. Before presenting the findings of the research it would be useful to look at business-related tourism, in particu- lar the meetings and conference sector and at Wa- ies's market for business tourism. 305

Business Tourism in Whales

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  • S U T T E R W O R T H E I N E M A N N 0261-5177(95)00020-8

    Tourism Management, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 305-313, 1995 Copyright 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd

    Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0261-5177/95 $10.00 + 0.00

    Business tourism: a study of the market for hotel-based meetings and its contribution to Wales's tourism

    Glyn Wootton and Terry Stevens Swansea Institute of Higher Education, Faculty of Leisure, Tourism & Healthcare, Mount Pleasant, Swansea SA1 6ED, Wales

    Wales has always been relatively dependent on the declining seaside holiday market and finding new and sustainable markets has become a priority. This article looks at the value of business-related tourism to Wales and reports on a survey of the hotel-based meetings and conference segment. From a survey of 74 hotels an estimate for the value of this segment in the order of 294 million is offered; four times as much as official estimates of 'all' business travel to Wales. It concludes that the importance of business tourism, and of meetings-related travel to Wales, is significantly underestimated and has potential for further development and promo- tion.

    Keywords: business tourism, hotels, meetings, conferences

    A critical aspect of tourism to Wales over the last decade or more has been the above-average depend- ence on the domestic seaside holiday market. ' The decline in this sector has been particularly heavily felt in Wales and as a result finding new and sustainable markets has become a priority, z One such market could be that of business tourism.

    Past estimates have suggested that Wales only attracts a small share of business tourism. The principal source of statistical data on the volume and value of tourism within the UK is the United King- dom Tourism Survey (UKTS). In the UKTS, a sample of adults (age 15+) are drawn by random selection throughout the UK and an accumulated sample of 73 000 UK residents are interviewed by questionnaire providing information on a range of tourism characteristics including trip purpose (of one night or more) and spending. There are, however, two chronic failings with UKTS for the calculation of business tourism. First, UKTS does not include same-day travel in the UK and, second, UKTS is a household-based survey, when business travellers are probably one of the most difficult groups to catch at home for survey purposes, especially since UKTS response rates for all adults are only around 60%. 3

    Information on overseas business travel is given by International Passenger Survey (IPS), which is a

    continuous large-scale survey of visitors entering and leaving the UK by major air and sea ports. The survey is generally reliable for the identification of 'purpose of trip' although it is probable that many smaller meetings, and those that include a 'below the line' element, are unrecorded.

    It is possible that the real size of Wales's business tourism market is underestimated. The authors therefore carried out research to look at the con- tribution that business-related tourism makes to Wales's tourism industry as a whole.

    The research focuses on the market for hotel- based meetings and conferences and offers an esti- mate of the value of this segment. As there is no definitive source that lists all of those hotels hosting meetings and conferences, a sample of hotels was selected and data collected by means of a telephone questionnaire survey. The hotels were asked how many events they had hosted in the previous 12 months, how many delegates had attended, how long each event had lasted, and what their delegate rates were. They were also asked a number of other questions and these are alluded to below. Before presenting the findings of the research it would be useful to look at business-related tourism, in particu- lar the meetings and conference sector and at Wa- ies's market for business tourism.

    305

  • Business tourism: G Wootton and T Stevens

    Business tourism Business tourism usually warrants an albeit brief mention in today's travel and tourism textbooks. 4-6 Drawing on the wording of resolutions put by the World Tourism Organisation to the United Nations in 1992 business tourism denotes the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their normal environment for the purposes of business. 3 It includes all activities, same-day travel and staying overnight, for which the principal reason for being away from the 'normal environment' is business, but it excludes all forms of commuting to work and the regular working journeys of business- men in their local areas.

    The worldwide business travel market is consi- dered to be enormous, accounting for 750 million trips with an estimated value in excess of US$320 000 million. 7 In the UK, according to fi- gures from UKTS, there are something like 19 million business tourism trips taken each year, equivalent to roughly one in seven or 15% of all tourism trips and accounting for 8% of all nights and 23% of all tourism spending, s'9 Expenditure on business travel in the UK is estimated to be worth in the region of 11.3 billion per annum and, when added to the overseas component taken from IPS, that is 2.2 billion, it is reasonable to estimate that total expenditure for business tourism in the UK may be worth as much as 13.5 billion per annum. 3

    Business tourism has grown strongly since the 1980s 1'11 and despite being buffeted by the down- turn in national and international economic activity in the first half of the 1990s it continues to grow faster than tourism as a whole, l Business tourists also spend more than holiday tourists and spending by business tourists has increased at a faster rate than for tourism as a whole. It is also less seasonal and the peaks and troughs of demand are less marked than for holiday tourism. 12 Furthermore, it is realistic that as business activity returns to pre- recessionary levels there will be considerable growth in business travel. Business visitors are also a major source of demand for hotel accommodation, 13 with hotels relying heavily on business travel to fill beds during the week. Business tourism accounts for at least two-thirds of most leading hotels' occupancy, 80-90% of the market of three- and four-star hotels 14 and 50% of budget hotels.15-17

    The main component of business tourism, that is general business travel, accounts for about 85% of 'all' business tourism, is primarily determined by the pattern of economic activity and is largely pre- determined. ~2 It should, however, be noted that a proportion of general business travel may involve an off-site meeting or it may have an incentive or hospitality element that uses tourism resources such as hotels. The second component, incentive travel, is a difficult market to quantify because of its 'below

    the line' nature; however, it is apparently an expand- ing market 1s'19 and the Meetings and Incentive Association estimate that the UK incentive market is worth 300 million and is growing at a rate of 10-15% each year.* The third component, meetings and conference travel, accounts for around 12% of the total business tourism market. 12 This sector provides the focus for the research and is reviewed in more detail below.

    The meetings and conference sector Business meetings and conferences havebecome a feature of modern commercial life. The growth and significance of meetings is tied to the growth in the quaternary sector in advanced economies which corresponds to the transaction of information per- formed by those in manufacturing, commerce, pro- fessional admin is t rat ive and higher level occupations. 2 This sector of the economy has been rapidly expanding over the past 20 years in terms of number and influence and the indication is that conference and tourism meetings has been growing faster than business tourism as a whole.12'21

    There is, however, a dearth of reliable informa- tion about the actual size of the meetings and conference market and estimates range from 900 million per annum 22 for larger conference centre events to 6 billion including smaller meetings held in a range of different types of venue. 23 Most confer- ences and meetings are small in terms of numbers of delegates with only 1% of conferences having over 500 delegates and only 10% having more than 200 delegates. Two-thirds of conferences have between 11 and 100 participants with 70% having less than 50 delegates. 23 Thus, small meetings are an important component of this sector.

    The number of meetings and conferences taking place is generally considered to be fairly stable. However, in the more volatile corporate sector, the current recession has caused a general levelling-off in demand for conferences and has led to cancella- tions, late booking, tighter budgets and downtrading of venues. The recession has also had the effect of reducing the number of delegates attending meet- ings and conferences as well as the duration of events with delegates becoming more cost consc ious . 12"22'24'25 Consequently, the average num- ber of day conferences in 1992 grew by 50%, 46% of all conferences being single-day events, although, in spite of the recession, the number of smaller residen- tial conferences has also increased by over 40%. In the short term, it is likely that the meetings market will continue to be affected by the recession and, during this period, day conferences will probably be more popular. In the long term, however, the out- look is encouraging and with fewer delegates attend-

    * Sarah Webster, Incentive Travel and Meetings Association, Interview, 1992.

    306 Tourism Management I995 Volume 16 Number 4

  • ing conferences it appears that the market for smal- ler meetings and conferences will be particularly buoyant.

    Conferences and meetings are increasingly used to promote tourism destinations z1"23'26 since most towns, resorts and cities feature hotels and other facilities that can be used as venues. Spa towns and seaside resorts were among the first to do so in order to generate off-peak business and have since been joined by many of the major industrial cities and heritage destinations. The growing conference mar- ket has stimulated the provision of a wide range of meeting and conference venues and a growing num- ber of local authorities have invested in purpose- built conference centres. However, purpose-built conference venues only account for a small share of the market and the majority of smaller meetings do not normally require a separate venue and, particu- larly in the corporate sector, will use the facilities within a hotel ~

    Conferences can be an important source of re- venue for hotels and as venues for conferences they dominate the market accounting for nearly 80% of all venues, 85% of all delegate days and 68% of all delegate nights. Meetings and conference guests also contribute more to a hotel's profit than general business travellers. 27 In general, meetings and con- ference business gravitates towards three- and four- star hotels and 'conference hotels' with large luxury hotels representing 15% of venues and 50% of all delegate days. More recently rural hotels, particular- ly country house hotels, have been diversifying into the conference and meetings market as venues for smaller, often upmarket, conferences where style, beautiful surroundings and a tranquil atmosphere are the preferred setting accounting for 24% of venues and 9% of delegate days. 21

    Wales's market for business tourism

    According to UKTS statistics, Wales currently under-performs compared with the rest of the UK in business travel terms. UKTS suggests that Wales's earnings from business tourism are only half as much as Scotland, and a tenth of England's earnings. It also suggests that Wales as a whole earns less from business tourism than North West England, Heart of England and London. 9 Moreover, estimates quoted in Wales Tourist Board 1989 strategic plan 28 suggests that conference tourism accounts for less than 10% of all domestic business tourist trips, and IPS s sug- gests that Wales has only a 1% share of the lucrative overseas conference market. Estimates of incentive tourism and other forms of business tourism to Wales do not appear to be available.

    The potential of Wales as a destination for busi- ness tourism is closely linked with its economic geography. South Wales is commercially the most highly developed area and attracts a significant

    Business tourism: G Wootton and T Stevens

    volume of independent business travel. Cardiff, par- ticularly, is a dynamic business centre receiving German, Japanese and American business travellers because of companies such as Bosch, Toyota and Hoover. Cardiff is also Wales's principal conference destination and is rapidly becoming established on the circuit for larger conferences attracting a share of the UK associations market, although is less well established as a destination for European and inter- national events being outstripped overall by other provincial destinations such as Birmingham and Manchester.

    North Wales does not have the same history of industrial and commercial development as South Wales. Consequently the region does not support the same overall level of commercial activity and does not attract the same volume of general business travel. However, because the economic geography of Wales runs east to west the region's potential as a destination for business tourism is linked to the business centres of Manchester, Liverpool and the Potteries. The recent economic prosperity of these areas has not been good, but in view of the renewed importance of the Midlands and the North West as centres of distribution for the UK within a wide European market the economic outlook for the region and the potential for business tourism is likely to improve.

    Mid Wales is predominantly rural, although many communities, and particularly the accommodation sector, benefit from tourism. As a destination for business tourism Mid Wales offers secluded country house hotels, historic meeting sites, shooting, fishing etc. In the past, access to Mid Wales destinations has been restricted but this has now been improved by the M54, Shrewsbury and Welshpool by-passes link- ing the business centres adjacent to the Welsh borders in Cheshire, Shropshire, Hereford and Worcester where there are a growing number of businesses that most probably have a frequent need to hold smaller conferences and meetings and to entertain clients.

    Business tourism in Wales could increase substan- tially, especially if the underlying economic recovery of Wales is sustained and especially if stimulated by international-scale projects such as Cardiff World Trade Centre and the Cardiff Bay Development. During the last five years Wales has been the chosen location for inward investment from overseas-based companies attracting some 34 companies from Japan and 140 from North America, bringing the total of foreign-based companies locating in Wales since 1979 to somewhere in the region of 430. There are, in addition, a considerable number of overseas and UK companies located in England adjacent to the

    3 29 V Welsh border.-" The larger towns in Wales ha e some imbalance between the available overnight accommodation and the number of delegates for larger events; in particular, there are few resort

    Tour&m Management 199.5 Volume 16 Number 4 307

  • Business tourism: G Wootton and T Stevens

    destinations in Wales that have enough accommoda- tion or which is of a standard to attract large conferences. However, Wales does have a large number of country house hotels of four-star standard in areas such as Brecon, Gower and throughout Mid and North Wales that are particularly well posi- tioned for the smaller business meetings market which may well include an incentive element.

    Survey of hotel-based meetings and conference business It would have been beyond this research to study 'all business tourism' and, therefore, the authors elected to concentrate on hotels and on the market for hotel-based meetings and conferences. Hotels are also a relatively homogeneous group to survey, and in this research they are used as a bias for measuring a 'considerable' segment of the business tourism market.

    A sample of 100 hotel venues for meetings and conference meetings were selected based on various publications and discussions with Wales Tourist Board and others. It is probable that the sample includes most of those hotels active as venues in the conference and meetings market, and a sample of 100 hotels was considered to be reasonably reliable. There are undoubtedly other hotels that accommo- date meetings and conference business that were not included in the sample, and the effect of this is most likely to be that the number of events taking place and the value of the hotel-based meetings market will be underestimated. There will also be some distortion in the analysis of the various market characteristics examined but it was considered that the net effect of this would be small.

    Results Seventy-four of the hotels completed the question- naire. The distribution of hotels closely matched that of the sample with 62% located in South Wales, 25% in North Wales and 13% in Mid Wales. Of the hotels surveyed, 60% were country house hotels, 32% were larger modern hotels located particularly in cities and towns or along routeways, such as the M4 motorway, and 6% of the hotels were seaside resort hotels. Figure 1 illustrates the relative geographical distribution of the hotels surveyed by their type.

    The total number of events hosted by the hotels in the sample was 16 249 and the total number of delegates that attended these events was 606 322. Taking the number of events and multiplying by their duration and the number of delegates that attended, a figure of 3 006 541 is obtained being the total number of delegate days.

    By applying a more detailed calculation separating non-residential and residential delegate days and multiplying by the average delegate day rate and the average residential rate, which were 23 and 79

    respectively, a reasonable estimate of the value of meetings and conferences is obtained.

    V and, V1

    V2 that is:

    say 215mn 206 071 421

    9 154 966

    where:

    = V1 + V2 = (nr t vl) = (r t v2)

    = 206 071 + 9 154 966 = 2 608 499 79 = 398 042 23

    V = total income from delegate bookings, V1 = total income from non-residential bookings, V2 = total income from residential bookings, n r t = total non-residential delegate days, r t = total residential delegate days, vl = average day delegate rate, and v2 = average residential delegate rate.

    Grossing-up these figures for the whole of the sam- ple, i.e. adding a further 26%, a broad estimate for the value of the hotel-based meetings and confer- ence sector would therefore be 294 million. It should also be pointed out that this estimate does not include individual delegate spending on goods and services not covered by the delegate rate and, therefore, an all-inclusive estimate is likely to be much higher. The estimate offered here however, does not account for hotels discounting delegate rates which was found to be common amongst the hotels surveyed.

    Sales meetings and training courses were the most frequently held events accounting for 63% of all events. Only 3% of all meetings had more than 50 delegates and less than 1% had more than 100 delegates. Figure 2 shows the distribution of dele- gate days for each type of event and Figure 3 compares the distribution of events, delegates and delegate days.

    The quietest months for meetings and conferences were July and August although the distribution of events was fairly evenly spread throughout the year. Many hotels, however, mentioned that they did not take bookings for meetings and conferences during the peak holiday season because the hotel was busy with holiday tourist trade. Some hotels, particularly those that attributed more equal importance to both types of trade, said that they were reluctant to accept meetings and conference bookings on the basis that they did not want holiday guests to feel 'second class' or they felt that they could not give meetings and conference guests the service and attention they demanded. Also, the small size and lack of facilities restricted some hotels from accommodating both types of business at the same time.

    The average occupancy across all hotels in the sample was 58%, ranging from 47% to 82%, which is higher than for hotels in Wales as a whole and is considerably higher than the average for Mid Wales and North Wales, although not much higher than

    308 Tourism Management 1995 Volume 16 Number 4

  • Business tourism: G Wootton and T Stevens

    Resort hotels

    Count ry t o telhot~e =

    Modern

    North Wales [

    Mid

    Resort hotels ~ Country hotels

    Modern hotels

    Wales

    hotels

    Country h

    hotels

    Figure 1 Geographical distribution of the sample hotels by type

    that for South Wales. 3 Figure 4 compares the occupancy measured here with the occupancy for Wales and the three regions; it also compares it with the occupancy noted by Coopers and Lybrand 23 which tends to indicate that hotels in Wales that offer meetings and conference facilities have higher than average occupancy.

    The relative importance of different areas as source markets for meetings hosted by the hotels surveyed is illustrated in Figure 5: 67% of all events

    South Wales

    are generated from within Wales, 41% of those were generated by businesses and organizations local to the hotel and 17% of events were generated by organizations from outside the area but within the same region. Other UK regions are an important source for meetings business amongst the hotels surveyed generating 31% of all events. Less than 1% of events were generated by organizations from Europe and less than 1% from other international source markets, although a number of hotels pointed

    Tourism Management 1995 Volume 16 Number 4 309

  • Business tourism: G Wootton and T Stevens

    Trainine 54%

    Product 3'

    Academic 3%

    Political 1%

    Association 4%

    anagement 6%

    Figure 2

    Sales 29%

    out that many of the meetings that they hosted involved delegates from overseas, particularly corporate meetings where the organizers had links with overseas companies. They also noted that events often involved delegates who had come from all over the UK, and particularly from London.

    Some 69% of the hotels had noted that meetings and conferences are getting shorter and that fewer delegates were attending. Figure 6 shows the aver- age duration of each type of event. Only 43% of hotels said that guests attending meetings and con-

    Wales all

    North Wales all

    Mid Wales all

    South Wales all

    Hotels surveyed

    Conference hotels-

    Resort hotels -

    10 2O

    Low

    Figure 4

    [ -7 Average 13.5

    I 52 I

    47 I i

    r 51

    I I I I I 30 40 50 60 70

    Percent

    I

    80 90 100

    High

    ferences spend more per head than other guests. This would tend to indicate that the 'delegate rate' accounts for much of the delegate expenditure and that, although meetings generate more revenue per head, it may not necessarily be the case that meet- ings delegates spend more per head than other types of tourist. Many hotels noted that meetings dele- gates had spent a lot less on beverages than in previous years although most hotels felt that this

    Training 25%

    Management 16%

    Training 31%

    Management 16%

    ~ les 31% Political 2% Academic 7%

    ~ u c t 8%

    ties 32%

    Political 2%

    Product 4%

    ~cademic 5%

    ,tion 10%

    Meetings

    Figure 3

    Association 11%

    Delegates

    g 54%

    Political 1% Product 3%

    Academic 3%

    sociation 4%

    Sales 29% Management 6%

    Delegate days

    310 Tourism Management 1995 Volume 16 Number 4

  • Out of area/reeional 17%

    Business tourism: G Wootton and T Stevens

    Other Wales regions 9%

    Europe 1% International 1%

    Other UK region 31%

    Local area 41%

    F igure 5

    area of expenditure would recover with improve- ments in the economy.

    Almost all (98%) of the hotels said that they expected competition to become more intense in future. Most expect the increase in competition to come from local hotels and for price to be a decisive factor in taking market share. Some hotels predicted that competition is likely to intensify as a result of a wider range of venues entering the market. Only a few hotels mentioned any other factor as likely to affect the market in the future. Some that were mentioned included: companies developing their own training facilities, general cost cutting because of the recession and new technology reducing the need to meet so regularly. Many hotels reported that, in spite of the recession, the corporate sector continues to generate meetings and conferences, although some hotels reported that they had lost some of their regular bookings as a result of com- panies going out of business and others had cut back on the number of events they had booked. Most hotels thought if the recession continues there would be more hotels chasing fewer events.

    Much of the meetings business being hosted by the hotels in the survey is repeat business, that is 61%, although many of the hotels pointed out that in the last year they had a higher rate of cancellations,

    Academic

    T ra in in

    Prodm

    Sale:

    Management

    Po l i t i ca l

    All

    0

    F igure 6

    /

    /

    l

    I I I I I I I 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5

    Days

    1 I I 4.0 4.5 5.0

    particularly at short notice, and that some regular clients were not booking for the year ahead as they had done in previous years. However, in spite of the recession, confidence amongst hotels remains high with 36% expecting an overall increase in business, and a further 54% expecting demand at least to stay the same next year. Only 10% of hotels anticipated that demand will fall in the next couple of years. Overall, it would appear that the market has become more volatile, although in general hotels felt that booking lead times would become longer again as the economic situation improved and 'confidence' returned.

    Conference and business meetings, in the view of at least 52% of the hotels questioned, is considered to be more important than the holiday tourist trade. Only 29% of hotels said that it was less important and a further 17% said they considered both markets to be of equal importance. However, only 8% of the hotels surveyed specifically targeted meetings and conferences in their marketing with the vast majority relying heavily on retaining clients.

    Conclusions

    The primary objective of this research was to pro- vide an estimate of the size and value of the market for hotel-based meetings and conferences in Wales. It was also intended to identify some of the charac- teristics and trends in this segment and to offer some informed comment with regard to business tourism in general, and its importance to tourism and the economy of Wales.

    It should be remembered that the sample of 100 hotels selected for the purposes of this research is unlikely to include all of those hotels used as venues for meetings and conferences, and that 26 of the hotels in the sample did not complete the question- naire. The estimates of the size and value of the hotel-based meetings and conference markets offered here are likely to be understated. Neverthe- less, according to this research hotel-based meeting and conference tourism is worth somewhere in the region of 294 million to Wales, which is nearly four

    TourL~m Management 1995 Volume 16 Number 4 31 1

  • Business tourism: G Wootton and T Stevens

    times greater than estimates of 'all business tourism' taken from UKTS and IPS. It would appear, there- fore, that business tourism as a whole is worth considerably more than previously thought. Moreover, if it is accepted that 'general' business travel accounts for somewhere in the region of 85% of all business tourism, taking the estimate offered here, which does not include meetings and confer- ences that take place in venues other than hotels or incentive travel and therefore represents only 15% of 'all' business tourism, the total business travel market to Wales would be worth somewhere in the region of 1960 million to Wales (excluding spending on car hire, hospitality, presents etc).

    Given that the real size of the business tourism market is underestimated, it is not surprising that it does not feature very prominently in Wales's recent tourism strategy, 'Tourism 2000'?' General business travel to Wales, which may or may not involve the use of tourism resources such as hotels for meetings and conferences, raises issues that go beyond the accepted role of the national tourist board in tourism development and promotion. By definition the de- velopment of this form of tourism is more closely linked to Wales's economic development which is primarily the responsibility of the Welsh Develop- ment Agency (WDA) and Wales Development In- ternational (WDI). Nevertheless, it should be appa- rent from this research that there is an important marketing task to be undertaken to realize the potential tourism benefits of this activity.

    The importance of the economic geography of Wales is clearly evident given the source markets identified in the survey. Given the improvements in infrastructure and the economic revival of Wales and of the areas that border Welsh regions it is reason- able to suggest that the potential market for meet- ings and conferences in Wales will continue to expand. Wales's links with Europe and the USA also offer considerable untapped potential. Furthermore, the more even seasonal pattern and the higher than average occupancy identified amongst the hotels surveyed would tend to suggest that meetings and conference tourism is less likely to compound the adverse effects of tourism, and also goes some way to making up for the decline in the more traditional holiday market and is a major source of support for the hotel sector.

    The effects of the current recession remain open to debate. On the one hand there is the suggestion that the number of meetings has declined, particu- larly amongst smaller companies, yet on the other hand it is suggested that the number of meetings has stayed the same but the numbers of delegates had declined and meetings have become shorter. The results of this research indicate that whilst some hotels have noticed a decline in the number of events it is more evident that meetings have become smaller and shorter. It would also appear that the market

    has become more volatile with an increase in late bookings and evidence of cancellations.

    It is most likely to be the case that the decline in volume noted by others is greater in respect of the market for larger events and that the trend towards smaller meetings has sustained the number of events hosted by hotels. Perhaps more important is that the outlook for meetings is encouraging with 90% of the hotels surveyed expecting business to remain the same or to improve in line with improvements in the economy and there being a return to longer lead times and higher levels of delegate Spending. However, the research suggests that the meetings market has become increasingly competitive with more venues and destinations entering the market. Thus, it is reasonable to suggest that those venues that can genuinely satisfy organizers' needs and which market themselves effectively will be most successful in attracting business.

    In spite of the recession, business and meetings tourism is a substantial and buoyant sector of 'all' tourism; it is also a more sustainable form of tourism than holiday tourism. In Wales, it is likely that the hotel-based meetings market is larger than existing estimates of 'all' business tourism and the suggestion is that the overall business tourism sector is worth several times more than previously thought. Given the relative decline in the traditional seaside holiday market, shifts in demand and growing pressure to protect the environment, whereas other forms of tourism may require control, business and meetings has potential for further development and promo- tion.

    References IRichards, B 'Tourism Blues' Leisure Management 1992, 12 (11) 30-32 2Wanhill, S 'Tourism 2000: a perspective for Wales' unpublished (1992) 3Middleton, V T C 'Business travel to Wales' unpublished (1992) 4Horwath Consulting Horwath Book of Tourism Macmillan, UK (1990) 5lnskeep, E Tourism Planning, an Integrated and Sustainable Development Approach Van Nostrand Reinhold (1991) "Lickorish, L J, Bodlender, J, Jefferson, A and Jenkins, C Developing Tourism Destinations Longman, Harlow (1991) 7World Tourism Organisation World Travel and Tourism Review: Indicators, Trends and Forecasts CAB International (1992) 8lnternational Passsenger Survey, International Conference Visi- tors to The UK, British Tourist Authority (1991) ~United Kingdom Tourism Survey (1992) ~Peterson, J and Belchambers, K 'Business travel a boom market' in Horwath Book of Tourism Macmillan, Basingstoke (1990) 56-65 I~Smith, G V 'The growth of conferences and incentives' in Howarth Book of Tourism Macmillan, Basingstoke (1990) 12Beioley, S 'Business tourism' Insight 1991 (July) B7-B14 13Slattery, P and Littlejohn, D 'The structure of Europe's econo- mies and demand for hotel accommodation' Travel and Tourism Analyst 1991 (4) 20-37 14Martins, C 'Meetings marketing for hotels and destinations' Insights 1991 (March) A101-A107 15Gilbert, D and Arnold, L 'Budget hotels', Leisure Management

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