business
Bed tax: funding stream or destination nightmare?
Phillip Cooke (pictured below left) investigates the contentious issue of bed tax, which has sprung up in many destinations around the globe. But is it a solution, or a further problem? Many countries and cities are able to devote large sums of money to promoting and developing their tourism industries via a system that taxes the visitor, not the host. These competing regions, most notably...
ReedPOP acquires fan convention Florida Supercon
ReedPOP, the world’s largest producer of pop culture events and part of Reed Exhibitions, has announced that Florida Supercon will be joining its collection of global fan conventions. Florida Supercon is an annual convention held in Miami, Florida celebrating comics, superheroes, science fiction, anime, cartoons, video games, wrestling and all things pop culture. The next edition of Florida Superc...
Seoul ups subvention funding and offers app/VR development help for planners
The Seoul Convention Bureau has this month officially rolled out its new 2019 PLUS SEOUL programme with increased subvention funding designed to boost business events. In addition to an expanded core benefit of up to KRW250m (US$220,360) (previously KRW150m) for qualifying international conferences and up to KRW200m for corporate/incentive groups (previously KRW100m), the Seoul Convention Bureau h...
International Convention Centre of Barcelona increases turnover by 11.5%
The International Convention Centre of Barcelona (CCIB), managed by GL Events, has broken its previous turnover record, with €37.2m in 2018. The figure represents an increase of 11.5% over 2017, and a 3.1% increase compared to the 2007 record, improving on pre-crisis levels. The CCIB claims loyalty and internationalisation are the reason for the exceptional results. More than 50% of clients return...
Meetings market shows 2018 growth, despite challenges
Meeting attendance continued to increase in 2018 as the business events industry experienced another year of consecutive growth, according to US-based Convene magazine’s 28th Meetings Market Survey. Meeting professionals responding to the survey, reported attendance at their largest meetings grew 5% in 2018. Most survey participants reported continued stability and growth for their events, accordi...
Corporate travel budgets expected to rise, says new Cvent research
Seven in ten European corporate travel decision makers (CTDMs) anticipate their travel budget will increase in 2019, with 16 percent saying they expect their budget to significantly increase, according to a recent study by Cvent entitled “The European Travel Manager in 2019.” 25 percent of CTDMs said their budget would remain unchanged, while only 6 percent foresee a year-over-year decline. German...
Ryanair blames stiff competition for 4th quarter loss
Budget airline Ryanair has posted a net loss of €19.6m for the last three months of 2018. The airline had cut fares in the face of what it called “excess winter capacity in Europe”. Ryanair carried more passengers and raked in more revenues compared to the same period in 2017 – there were 32.7m passengers compared with 30.4m for the same period a year earlier, as revenue rose 9% to €1.53bn. ...
Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre delivers RM888 million to Malaysia
The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) in Malaysia delivered RM888 million of economic impact to Malaysia in 2018, according to the venue. It welcomed 2.18 million visitors throughout the year, an increase of 45% from 2017. It also played host to 1,485 events in the year, 17% more than 2017. The Centre’s General Manager Alan Pryor commented: “We are delighted with our performance last year, and...
Airbnb acquisition evidence of platform’s move deeper into business events
Airbnb, the San Francisco-based online hospitality service reportedly worth US$30bn, has moved further into the MICE space with the acquisition of Denmark’s Gaest venue booking platform. The Aarhus start-up offers venue booking options by the hour or daily increments. Gaest was founded in 2015 by Anders Boelskifte Mogensen (CEO), Chris Kjær Sørensen, Christian Schwarz Lausten and Jonas Grau Sigten...
hotel republic announces record £10.2m turnover
Hotel sales and marketing and representation company, hotel republic, has posted record turnover of £10.2m (US$13.10) its hotel conference portfolio for last year, including invoicing £1.2m in hotel fees alone. The agency also booked its biggest ever event worth £1.7m during the period, as well as 75,000 room nights which translated into £8.2m million for its Leisure hotel portfolio. Managing Dire...
GL events graduates to €1 billion club and targets acquisitions
Global integrated event industry group GL Events has announced 2018 consolidated revenues topping €1bn. The €1.041bn total figure represented a rise of 9% like-for-like and completion of the group’s ZZX acquisition in China. The company reported an adverse exchange rate effect of €34m offset by contributions from new acquisitions. International markets accounted for 50% of annual revenue. Olivier ...
Dubai targets larger events and reports $330m meetings impact
Dubai is targeting larger-scale business events and says its 2018 wins are set to deliver AED1.2bn (US$330m) in economic impact over the coming years. The emirate’s CVB, Dubai Business Events (DBE), says that 153,000 delegates will visit the emirate as a result of business event wins in 2018. The bureau also reports growth in winning bids last year when it helped secure a total of 261 successful b...