Marketing Plans Package Facilities, Hotels
By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 5/30/2005
Some overseas expo centers are teaming up with hotels and other facilities to market themselves to show organizers as one-stop packages. These include Paris Expo, Amsterdam RAI in the Netherlands and Centro Banamex in Mexico City.
Paris Expo recently grouped its seven venues under a single corporate brand and is offering clients a single contact for all. They include Carrousel du Louvre Conference Center, Porte de Versailles, CNIT Conference Center, Espace Grande Arche, Coeur Defense, Palais des Sports and Espace Champerret.
A subsidiary of French real estate conglomerate Unibail, Paris Expo includes 300,000 square meters (3.2 million square feet) of exhibit space in the Paris area and annually hosts more than 900 exhibitions, congresses and other events.
According to the 2004 Tradeshow Week Major Exhibit Hall Directory, the flagship venue, Paris Expo-Porte de Versailles, is Europe's 11th-largest exhibit hall with 220,000 sq. m. (2.4 million sq. ft.). It hosts more than 200 events each year that together attract more than 6 million visitors.
Anne Marie Narboni, head of Paris Expo's Intl. Congress Division, said emphasizing the variety of venues available, while providing one-stop service, presented a new way for the company to attract international business.
But Paris Expo wasn't the first to think of this. According to John van Stolk, head of international business development for Amsterdam RAI, that venue for 15 months has been a member of the Amsterdam Convention Circle, which includes exhibition and meeting space, hotels, public transportation, the airport and other relevant services in Amsterdam.
"The ACC created American convenience in a European setting," said van Stolk. "It has been nominated for different awards and, since our success, many destinations claim to be doing the same."
He finds that U.S. event managers like to have everything in one place, so they often use huge hotels for their meetings. Working closely with nearby hotels, the RAI developed its package specifically for the U.S. audience.
Controlling hotel prices is paramount. "We are the biggest booker here, so hotels work with us to keep prices down — otherwise, we'd lose bookings," van Stolk said. He added that the idea was inspired by a similar arrangement at the Suntec Singapore Intl. Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Van Stolk sells the venue as a total package to meet organizers' needs and offers extensive services, including research data in specific industries, so that the RAI is able to tell organizers what kind of audience they can expect. The ACC isn't only about facilities and ballroom space, he added. It identifies and targets specific industries, and also offers sales assistance, public relations and other services. These are exclusive, although it makes sense for organizers to use them, he said.
Elsewhere, Mexico Congress City was created in January to promote Mexico City as a destination for national and international congresses. There, the convention center Centro Banamex joined with five local hotels: Camino Real Mexico, Nikko Mexico, Presidente Intercontinental Mexico, Sheraton Maria Isabel and Sheraton Centro Historico. Sponsored by the Mexico Tourism Board through its convention bureau, as well as the Mexico City Tourism Board, the groups jointly promote their facilities.
Steve Sind, president and CEO of Global Event Strategies, also pointed to the Asia-Pacific Venues Alliance, which brings together offerings of the Nippon Convention Center (Makuhari Messe), Suntec Singapore, and Shanghai New Intl. Expo Centre. APVA offers such benefits as market information, priority booking access, and time and cost efficiencies when rotating a convention or exhibition around different Asian venues.
According to Cherif Moujabber, founder and president of Creative Expos & Conferences, marketing an international destination to an American audience has always been about more than just one convention center. He said these recent group marketing plans "enhance the message by pooling the resources of the ecosystem, while bringing solutions to customers attracted by the destination but not yet ready for the big leap into the convention center."
Moujabber added that an increased demand for meeting room space has also fueled the recent trend.
