Konstantinos Kuskoukis: ““H Greece Greece has all the conditions to become a pole of attraction for MICE events”
Conference – Exhibition Tourism is one of the most important forms of tourism and is defined as tourism associated with attending conferences and exhibitions, employing millions of people around the world and is the main core of tourism in several leading destinations. This tourism represents an important market at international level, which concerns visitors of high educational and economic level, who stay in high class hotels usually for 3-4 days and are willing to spend a lot of money, but also demand a very high quality of services and products.
Conference Tourism refers to organised meetings of people with common interests and professional qualities, while Exhibition Tourism refers to the presentation of products or services in specific venues and the terms used are exhibition, exposition, trade and show/fair. There are no large conference centres in Greece and 85% of conferences are held in hotel conference rooms, which prevents the organisation of large international conferences and exhibitions in Greece.
Conference and Exhibition Tourism aims to attract a large number of people for a few days in a particular place, to promote the place to the participants, to contribute to the creation of a tourist flow in the region and to establish the twelve-month tourist season in Greece, contributing substantially to economic and social development.
Organised conference and exhibition centres are lacking in our country, capable of hosting 10,000-15.000 people and in which, in addition to the basic conference space, there should be a) satellite areas for parallel meetings of up to 200 people, b) reception and recreation areas for delegates, exhibitors and visitors, c) exhibition areas where conference sponsors can have stands, d) suitable hotel units and e) easy access to the conference exhibition area and the country’s airport.
Greece, where, before the pandemic, there were 1,000-1,500 medical conference events and more than 3,500 exhibition events, has all the prerequisites to become one of the strongest countries for attracting Conference and Exhibition Tourism, achieving the corresponding exchange, tourism, social and cultural benefits, provided that incentives are given to invest in the creation of modern venues and infrastructure for a large number of people. These spaces can be created either as SDI projects, or by giving incentives to entrepreneurs to invest in this sector, while the use of existing building stock could be immediately activated through the conversion of large-scale indoor sports facilities into conference venues.
Επιβάλλονται αναμόρφωση του θεσμικού πλαισίου διοργάνωσης συνεδρίων και εκθέσεων, δημιουργία ισχυρού lobby που να μπορεί να επηρεάζει τα κέντρα λήψης αποφάσεων για διεθνή συνέδρια υπέρ της Eλλάδας, επιμορφωτικά σεμινάρια ώστε να αναβαθμίζεται το ανθρώπινο δυναμικό που ασχολείται με τις τουριστικές υπηρεσίες, δημιουργία πακέτων δραστηριοτήτων για τους νέους εκθέτες και τους συνοδούς τους και κατάλληλη προβολή αυτού, χρησιμοποιώντας σύγχρονες μεθόδους marketing και κυρίως ανάθεση σε project managers ολοκληρωμένων masterplans με συγκεκριμένους στόχους και ανταποδοτική αμοιβή, για όλες τις κατηγορίες τουρισμού ως ένα ενιαίο κλάδο.
O τομέας των συνεδρίων – εκθέσεων ήταν ένας από τους πρώτους τύπους τουρισμού που επηρεάστηκαν από την παγκόσμια εξάπλωση του COVID-19, σύμφωνα με την Global Data. MICE events are now being held online, without the tourism companies, and this is a worrying trend for all travel and tourism industries. Oι περιορισμοί παραμένουν στις περισσότερες οικονομίες και ενώ αρχίζουν να συνέρχονται, τόσο περισσότερες εταιρείες και διοργανωτές εκδηλώσεων διαφαίνεται να συνηθίζουν στο να φιλοξενούν και να παρακολουθούν συνεδριακές εκδηλώσεις στο διαδίκτυο. Trade fairs, however, are much more effective when held face-to-face because of the attendees’ incentives to evaluate and experience products and personal services.
Conference and exhibition companies will be looking for new ways to reduce costly costs to recover from the economic impact of COVID-19, while many travellers may not wish to travel as frequently as they did before the pandemic.
Business Tourism is an important form of tourism and is linked to the attendance of conferences and exhibitions, employing millions of people around the world. And it is a key core of tourism in several top destinations. It represents an important market at international level, which concerns visitors of high educational and economic level, who stay in high class hotels and are willing to spend a lot of money, but also demand very high quality services and products. Their usual stay ranges from three to five days, including tourist and leisure activities.
Business tourism includes trips for business purposes related to the organisation of or participation in conferences, international exhibitions, meetings, organised events, for the purpose of exchanging scientific and specialised knowledge or promoting sales, advertising of products and services and public relations within the framework of a predefined programme.
The factors that influence the choice of destination for business tourism are high levels of economic growth, a strong economy that increases demand, political stability, low cost of living, the productivity of a destination with specialized industries, products and services.
Incentive tourism refers to the corporate gift trip offered to employees by private companies at the company’s expense as an incentive to become more efficient and enrich their knowledge in their field of work, while relaxing and having fun.
Individual business travel is referred to as business travel, corporate travel, business accounts and refers to travel undertaken on an individual basis for the needs of the business in which the professional salesperson works. They are related, on the one hand, to the promotion, sales promotion and advertising of private enterprises and, on the other hand, to the conclusion of agreements of a business or commercial nature.
Bleisure travel is a growing phenomenon as over 50% of frequent travellers say they prefer to extend their business travel to include personal time and travel for business at least 4 times a year.
The business and leisure tourism sector is expected to decline by 35.3% in 2020, according to GlobalData, as events are now taking place online, a worrying trend for all travel and tourism industries.
Business travel is a high cost for all companies and with the rise of video conferencing software such as Zoom, Google Meet, many will realise that this type of ongoing expense is unnecessary given that business travellers are likely to avoid frequent travel as they did before the pandemic. The pandemic dealt a decisive blow to Greek tourism and the national MICE industry with a reduction in turnover of over 75% in 2020 and a decrease in foreign visitors of over 90%. The MICE sector has been hit harder than any other as conditions have not allowed conferences to take place and even amidst the general downturn in tourism with a 23% turnover compared to 2019, i.e. a loss of €16 billion for 2020 and €8 billion for 2021 in a market that generates 20%-25% of AEP.
Today, as we are experiencing digital transformation, the millennials γίνονται οι νέοι επαγγελματίες ταξιδιώτες που διαμορφώνουν νέες τάσεις στην ταξιδιωτική βιομηχανία, προβλέπεται, δε, ότι στο άμεσο μέλλον, θα αντιπροσωπεύουν σχεδόν το 50% όλων των δαπανών επαγγελματικών ταξιδιών. And, although online meetings are now very popular, the majority of them believe that face-to-face meetings are more effective.
What needs to be done
Greece has all the prerequisites to become a pole of attraction for MICE events, benefiting from the corresponding transactional, touristic, social and cultural benefits, offering with security, responsibility and reliability a valuable strategic tool towards videoconferencing, aiming at the balance of cost optimization and the restart of tourism. Επιβάλλονται μέτρα όπως η παροχή κινήτρων, η δημιουργία κατάλληλων υποδομών στα αεροδρόμια, η αναμόρφωση του θεσμικού πλαισίου, η δημιουργία μάρκετινγκ και ισχυρού lobby, τα επιμορφωτικά σεμινάρια του τουριστικού δυναμικού καθώς και ένα ολοκληρωμένο master plan συνεργασίας κρατικών και ιδιωτικών φορέων με φιλόδοξους αλλά και μετρήσιμους στόχους από επιλεγμένους project managers ανά ειδικότητα.
