Distinctly positive trend

A survey among German corporate decision-makers and MICE-agencies shows that more than 90 % of those questioned are convinced that outgoing business in context with conferences and incentives will grow stronger this year than was the case in preceding years. The demand for European destinations is growing again and will continue to grow in the future.

That's the bottom line of a topical survey on trends in the German outbound meetings and incentive market, the findings of which were presented at the IMEX in Frankfurt. The survey was conducted under the auspices of the Travel Marketing Factory GmbH (TMF), a specialized agency for marketing and data research in the conference and incentive market. Its focus was on the current situation in MICE-agencies and event-staging departments in leading businesses. TMF executive directrice Johanna Fischer was proud to point out that the survey's focal issues make it the only representative analysis of this kind for the German market. It is based on last year's survey and will be continued and updated in 2006.
The study had its focus on development trends in the German conference and incentive market; the objective was to determine the most appropriate sales and marketing avenues to penetrate the market most effectively. Other issues were this particular industry's future prospects and anticipated developments as relates to market volumes as well as the significance of European venues and long-distance destinations. The survey also had a look at motives and information sources used to come to a decision for or against any particular event venue. Several focus and VIP groups were filtered from the altogether 118 respondents from the MICE-agency and corporate-decider communities. These were then interviewed in detail, which further increased the informational value of the survey findings.
But first a few general facts on the German MICE-market as seen by Johanna Fischer on the basis of her research investigations: she determined a potential in the range of 16,000 MICE deciders in businesses on the German market as well as around 1,000 "MICE agencies", that is tour operators with their own incentive departments, incentive organizers, PCOs as well as event and advertisement agencies. 89 % of these suppliers organize incentives, 74 % conferences and meetings and 59 % will also organize other corporate events such as product presentations. The majority of agencies will cover most of the listed sectors and will not concentrate exclusively on one of these.
Fischer has determined that the majority of incentive agencies is relatively small. Approximately 50 % of these organize between 10 and 30 events of this type per year. The size of incentive groups ranges predominantly between 20 and 100 persons, however group sizes between 100 and 500 participants are not uncommon either. Incentives are held at destinations throughout the entire world. The situation differs a bit for conferences and meetings: the majority of groups has between 100 and 500 delegates. Most of these business events are staged in Germany or in Europe, traveling overseas is an exception.
According to Johanna Fischer, MICE is an all-year-round business. There aren't any real peak and dead-slow seasons, even if the months of April/May and September/October have shown to be favorites for international incentives. Appropriated budgets have developed into the most important selection criteria, and special offers are high in demand. As a consequence, this implies that prices to an increasing degree determine travel schedules and destinations.
Some more significant findings established by this survey: in comparison with the preceding year, respondents held a more positive view of development trends for the outbound convention and incentive market. More than 90 % of the questioned MICE-agencies and corporate deciders expect consistent or upward trends for 2005. The demand for European destinations is up again and will continue to rise in the future. Estimates are that 39 % of the events will be staged in Europe this year. One third of the respondents to this survey expects this share to rise even higher. One consequence is that more than 40 % of the entire budget for events will be invested in Europe, with focus here on the southern part of the continent. At the same time, 82 % of those questioned expect unchanged or even rising trends for overseas destinations, which actually is a significant trend improvement as compared with statements last year. And which criteria are ultimately decisive for choosing a specific destination? Top of the list are convenient traffic connections, followed by quality facilities meeting high standards, Value for Money as well as political stability. In response to the question about favorite information sources, interviewees referred to fam trips as most successful instrument for marketing any destination. Stands and info booths at fairs and tradeshows have also shown to be successful. MICE-agencies are in fact quite optimistic about future developments, more than 60 % of these expect business to go up. This past year, the share of optimists had been only 34 %. This is the more revealing as agencies contrary to corporate event department speak not only for themselves but also for their clients. And what trends are visible? Said Johanna Fischer: "Meetings are almost always an integrated part of these programs. The programs themselves should be interactive; fixing a specific theme isn't really important. It's quite interesting that program elements such as golf contrary to general opinion do not play any really significant role. On the other hand, cultural aspects are gaining in importance."

m+a report Nr.6 / 2005 vom 23.09.2005
m+a report vom 23. September 2005