Independent research into the meetings and events industry in Australia by Micromex Research and commissioned by mice.net magazine has revealed that Sydney is hot for domestic meetings while New Zealand tops the international list.
The research of almost 1000 readers of mice.net magazine conducted in June 2007 found to the question – What domestic destinations are you considering for your next conference/event (figure 1), 42.4 per cent of respondents said Sydney followed by Melbourne (34.6 per cent), Brisbane (18.4 per cent), and the Gold Coast (15.6 per cent).
To the question – What international destinations are you considering for an upcoming conference/event (figure 2), the response was New Zealand (17.8 per cent), Auckland (14.7 per cent), Singapore (12.9 per cent), and Fiji (9.4 per cent).
According to Micromex, 15 per cent of respondents to the survey specifically stated Auckland, Wellington (nine per cent), Queenstown (eight per cent), Christchurch (seven per cent), and Rotorua (five per cent) were cities they were considering for an upcoming conference/event.
FIGURE 1: Domestic destinations being considered for next conference/event
FIGURE 2: International destinations being considered for next conference/event
FIGURE 3: The three key issues facing the meetings and events industry over the next one to three years.
FIGURE 4: The most important issues in venue selection
FIGURE 5: Average lead time to book and confirm events
As well as knowing what destinations were hot, mice.net magazine was also interested in understanding what issues respondents believed were going to have an effect on the business events industry during the next few years (see figure 3). Respondents said cost was the biggest factor (61 per cent) followed by venues/destinations (25 per cent), competition from other event planners (22.1 per cent), service (14.4 per cent), the environment (13.3 per cent), and staff (13 per cent).
In terms of selecting venues for meetings and events (figure 4), location (25.8 per cent) and price (25.1 per cent) came out on top. Other key factors were size of meeting and function rooms (22.4 per cent), relationship with staff (13 per cent), service (7.4 per cent) and access (3.4 per cent). Whether the venue was environmentally friendly only received a three per cent response as being of importance to meeting and event planners.
That popular question about lead times was once more asked, with results as follows: 28 per cent said they had between one and three months to put together an event; 3-6 months (33.4 per cent), 6-12 months (24.9 per cent), 12-18 months (10.1 per cent), and 18 months – 2 years (2.1 per cent).
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