Research: Rising stars

Poland is a ‘hot’ meetings destination and coming through strongly, according to Reed Travel Exhibitions’ latest IBTM European Research findings.

Presenting the research for the EIBTM trade show in Barcelona in November 2012, The Right Solution’s Sally Greenhill explained that recent big investment in infrastructure was paying off for Poland in the international meetings market.

Good value for money for both Poland and Turkey, which is also fast making an international meetings name for itself, propelled both countries into the top 10 of European meetings destinations, according to the new survey among 1,037 buyers. Responses were gathered up to 14 November 2012.

The buyers’ profiles were 77 per cent agency or third party, 14 per cent corporate and four per cent not-for-profit. Five per cent fell into other categories.

Greenhill said the research had also indicated ‘losers’ in the meetings merry-go-round. Portugal’s ongoing economic problems, she noted, had seen the country drop out of the top 10 European destinations for buyers over the next 12 months.

In terms of meetings spend, Monaco, Malta and Germany top the list of destinations ticked by buyers.

Average spend per conference was put at US$207,823 in Monaco, yet just $45,000 in Estonia.

The figures were extrapolated from an average of 262 delegates per event.



The economy was put forward by buyers as the biggest factor impacting their decisions whether
to increase meetings or events.



As far as future trends were concerned, Greenhill said the survey had highlighted the $150bn Chinese meetings market, which was, she said, “still booming”.

The findings showed also that the CIVETS countries (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) would be looming large on international meetings buyers’ radars in coming years.


The affect of technology was also being felt ever more keenly, with 32.4 per cent of respondents using apps and 67 per cent using social media. Forty-three per cent of respondents said they had held a virtual meeting and 23.9 per cent were using audience response devices.

With new countries and regions rapidly becoming major players in the meetings market as inbound and outbound generators, destinations being selected and those generating major traffic are changing dramatically, the research reveals.

One year on from the first IBTM trends research and the Eurozone crisis is still very much in the headlines and the US economy is still wobbly. The results of this latest survey suggest a mixed economic picture with increased volume and reasonable values of business for many European countries. This is being achieved even though the majority of business is being generated within Europe.

There is no doubt that having to ‘do more with less’, remains the common picture.

Twenty-six per cent of respondents were seeing their marketing and promotional budgets decrease next year, despite, or perhaps because of, using an increasing number of new technologies for marketing.

The top European countries for events by volume in the last 12 months were Germany, France, UK, Spain and Italy, with more surprising results for those in 6th to 10th position: Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden and Turkey.

Attendees to events in Europe are most often coming from countries within Europe, although there are significant numbers coming from North and South America and Asia, emphasising the need for frequent air routes for destination success.

The need to spend wisely has led to the use of new destinations that are perceived to offer better value for money, such as Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia and Albania.

Sixty-three per cent of buyers are predicting increased use of new destinations next year.

Clearly the market is increasingly competitive for destinations yet there is optimism from the buyers for the market in the year ahead.  

This was first published in the Issue 70/2012 edition of CMW. Any comments? Email cmw@mashmedia.net