The meetings industry is one of the fundamental segments of the tourism sector. UNWTO’s newly released Global Report on the Meetings Industry provides an overall view of the main issues facing destinations aiming to build a competitive meetings industry along with case studies from around the world.
Against the backdrop of increased globalization and the sustained expansion of the tourism sector, the importance of the meetings industry is expected to continue growing. The Meetings Industry further provides immense benefits to the broader economy as it generates on average a higher spending level, reduces seasonality, contributes to the regeneration of destinations, spreads knowledge and enhances innovation and creativity.
“This report shows that public-private collaboration and partnerships are fundamental for taping into this valuable market and harnessing its many benefits”, said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, in presenting the report. “The Meetings Industry has been systematically studied by UNWTO for over a decade, including the definition of the scope of this segment and the methodology required for the measurement of its economic contribution”, he added.
The Global Report on the Meetings Industry builds on these results and offers a practical approach, focusing on the issues of marketing, the added value of events, as well as on practical examples and case studies from the Americas, Asia and Europe.
The report is the seventh volume of the UNWTO Affiliate Member Reports, which address critical areas for the tourism sector against the backdrop of private-public collaboration and partnerships. The study was produced with the collaboration of Meetings Professionals International (MPI), the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), the Asociación de Palacios de Congresos de España (APCE), the Asociación de Ferias Españolas (AFE), the Organización Profesional de Congresos (OPC), the Association of Spanish Destination Management Companies (DMCs Spain) and the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives (SITE).
Download the report: http://platma.org/publications
