Poland is a ’hot’ meetings destination and coming through strongly, together with Turkey, according to the latest IBTM European research findings.
Presenting the new research for EIBTM in Barcelona, 27 November, The Right Solution’s Sally Greenhill, said that recent years of investment in infrastructure were paying off for Poland in the international meetings market. Good value for money for both Poland and Turkey had propelled both countries into the top 10 European meetings destinations.
Portugal’s ongoing economic problems had had an adverse affect, with the country dropping out of the list of top 10 destinations for buyers over the next 12 months.
Greenhill said the latest information had been gathered from 1,037 buyer responses up to 14 November 2012.
In terms of meetings spend, Monaco, Malta and Germany topped the list of destinations ticked by buyers.
Average spend was US$207,823 per conference in Monaco, yet just US$45,000 in Estonia. The figures were based on an average of 262 delegates per event.
The economy was put forward as the biggest impact factor on deciding whether to increase meetings or events, the buyers noted.
As far as future trends were concerned, Greenhill identified the $150bn Chinese meetings market, which was, she said, “still booming”. She added that the CIVETS countries (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South ica) would be looming large on international meetings buyers’ radars in coming years.
The affect of technology was also being felt, with 32.4 per cent of respondents using apps and 67 per cent using social media. Other technology statistics included 43 per cent of respondents saying they had held a virtual meeting and 23.9 per cent were using audience response devices.
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