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.
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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).