Staying Competitive in Europe and the World

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Staying Competitive - in Europe and the World

• Mike Williams

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Staying Competitive

• The Competitive Behaviour
• Infrastructure development
• New destinations bureaux
• Subvention
• What must Europe do

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Staying Competitive

• Awareness among politicians
• Maybe the single most important development
• High return on investments
• Creates jobs
• High yield market
• Creates repeat tourism visitors
• Promotes local innovation and expertise
  internationally
• Professional development for locals
• International profile and prestige

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Staying Competitive

• Evolution of the worldwide breakdown by continent
• since 2000 (ICCA), Number of meetings in
• Europe 0.6
• Asia Middle East 3
• Latin America 1.2
• Australia 0.8
• North America -3.6
• Africa 0.1

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Staying Competitive

• New destinations with a growth gt 50 in the last
  10 years (Number of meetings , ICCA)
• Iceland 173
• Australia 144
• Fiji 140
• South Africa 125
• Peru 113
• New Zealand 86
• Slovenia 83
• South Korea 81
• Thailand 69
• Cuba 56
• Turkey 54

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Staying Competitive

• Infrastructure Development

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Staying Competitive

• Singapore
• 5 billion Marina Bay Sands
• 2,500 hotel rooms
• 120,000 sqm meetings
• space
• Casino resort

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Staying Competitive

• Dubai
• 4,500 seat plenary hall
• 60,000 sqm exhibition space
• Additional 20,000 hotel rooms
• under construction
• Billions being spent on new
• infrastructure

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Staying Competitive

• Macau
• Building a replica of Las Vegas within three
  years
• Additional 20,000 rooms
• New convention centre
• Plenary 15,000
• 108 breakout rooms
• 100,000 sqm meeting exhibition space

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Staying Competitive

• New convention centres
• Cape Town, South Africa
• Hyderabad, India
• Vancouver, Canada
• Melbourne, Australia
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Staying Competitive

• New Destinations and Convention Bureau
• Destinations with new or expanded infrastructure
• Destinations with new convention bureaus e.g.
  Cape Town, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Macau, Korea
• Destinations that have growth their convention
  bureaus resources

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Staying Competitive

• Subvention
• Destinations providing financial funding support
  towards a bid
• Financial incentives
• Underwriting
• Per delegate subsidy
• Event sponsorship, VIP receptions
• Marketing support
• Seed funding
• Service support

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Staying Competitive

• Singapore
• SIN170 million to attract MICE events
• Attract international Association HQs, PCO
  event companies
• 15 million advertising campaign
• Attractive basket of incentives
• Complimentary rooms
• Special discounts on FB
• Special rates from national airlines
• Support for bidding (marketing and promotion
  costs)

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Staying Competitive

• China
• Recent successful biddings
• 2008 Olympic Games Beijing
• Expo 2010 in Shanghai
• Malaysia
• 56.6 million for promotional activities
• Tax allowances for hotels and tourism projects

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Staying Competitive

• What Europe must do
• Be more united
• Create a made in Europe label
• Establish a strong European domestic market
  through
• Better cooperation and exchange of knowledge
• Rise the level of professionalism through
  education
• Market and promote more aggressively

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Staying Competitive

• What Europe must do
• Encourage greater government support and
  investment
• Upgrade its infrastructure
• Development of convention support programs
• Review competitive pricing and packaging
• Reiterate its strengths proximity to membership
• Improve technology i.e. Client Relationship
  Management tools
• Refresh the image

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Staying Competitive

• What Serbia must do
• Encourage greater government support and
  investment
• Upgrade its infrastructure
• Identify its niche
• Industry training to lift service standards
• Development of convention support programs
• Review competitive pricing and packaging
• Develop a brand position
• Improve technology
• Encourage more direct air services
• Engage international meetings community

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Staying Competitive

• What happens in Europe?
• Number of delegates in countries 2000 - 2005
  (ICCA)
• France -30
• Italy -37
• Greece 150
• Austria 28
• Denmark 100
• Czech Republic 100
• Poland 12
• Croatia 7

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Staying Competitive

• Investment in the region
• New airports (Athens, Vienna)
• New or reconstructed convention centres
  (Budapest, Vienna, Lyon, Stockholm, Stuttgart,
  Hamburg, Mannheim, Cologne, Valencia, Darmstadt,
  Oslo )
• Only in Sweden 4 new congress centres will be
  opened within 24 months

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Staying Competitive

• Aggressive subventions
• In Europe 49 cities are offering payments/large
  subventions to associations choosing their
  destination for a convention
• Glasgow has a very successful programme offering
  meetings with X number of delegates, 150,000
  for organising an event in the city
• Istanbul has the same system, but even more money
  involved

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Staying Competitive

• Cheap air fares
• Accessibility is the key to getting meetings to
  your destination
• Direct flights more and more important
• The battle of low cost carriers
• Destinations invest money in Ryan Airs routes
  (or airports for them)

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Staying Competitive

• The Göteborg (Gothenburg, Sweden) case
• 2005 the decision was taken to get more direct
  flights (at that time about 20 incl 2 low cost
  fares destinations)
• Today 50 destinations with direct flights. 60
  low cost fares
• Political determination and dedicated/skilled
  people made the change (no money involved to the
  airlines, but in infrastructure and change in
  policy by the aviation authorities)

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Staying Competitive

• New destinations must capitalise on interest
• Baltic states
• Balkan states
• Central Europe
• Malta
• Russia (St. Petersburg)

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Thank You