Project to Demonstrate Global Travel Value

A collection of business travel organizations has launched an initiative to demonstrate the economic value of international business meetings to the global economy. The effort is headed by Santiago Guerreiro, an economist appointed in September by a joint steering group that is funding the project. It consists of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, Intl. Congress and Convention Assn., Meeting Professionals Intl., Reed Travel Exhibitions and EIBTM, the global meetings and incentive event held annually in Spain.

Six countries – Australia, Austria, Canada, Mexico, South Africa and Spain – will take part in a pilot project collecting data to prove the economic clout of convention and meeting attendees. The countries' national statistics offices and tourism promotion organizations will use visitor and industry-specific surveys to provide the data.

During the next year and a half, Guerreiro will work with the participating countries to assess data such as expenditures by meeting participants, numbers of meeting participants, length of meetings and number of nights in hotels.

Guerreiro said he believes there is strong evidence that the meetings industry makes a significant contribution to the global economy. He noted that data already collected from the Spanish tourism agency Turespana showed the average leisure tourist spent $1,230 on trips to Spain in 2006, while business travelers spent $1,552 and meeting participants $2,195.

Guerreiro said the industry must present data to convince governments of the importance of the meetings industry.