Meetings Statistics: Pilot Phase Presented in Las Palmas
After conducting a survey among ECM members in 2009 about their interest in analysing cities‘ statistics about the Meetings Industry (or MICE), and the way the data is collected in each destination, ECM Research & Statistics Working Group agreed to conduct a pilot phase of the project, analysing statistics from a group of volunteer cities.
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For this test, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, Lyon, Paris, Valencia and Vienna agreed to share their data on meetings that took place in their cities during 2008 and 2009.
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There were some differences in data collection and classification between cities, the most “serious” being the use of different terms to classify the same kind of event, or in some cases the absence of data about corporate meetings. Nevertheless, it was possible to analyse the data set and produce a presentation of what can be done on this subject in the future with more cities participating.
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The indicators used were the number of events, the number of attendants and the duration of the meetings. The study split meetings by type (into Corporate and Associative/Non-Corporate events), took into consideration the nature of the events (national or international), established a scale for their size (number of attendants), and also analysed seasonality.
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The analysis was presented to ECM members during the meeting in Las Palmas and was well received by the audience, which agreed that the project should move forward in a very practical way, to address the identified issues concerning the classification and completeness of data collection. With this in mind, the Research & Statistics Working Group will now work on the best way of implementing the next step, which will include the participation of more cities.
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André Moura
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Department Coordinator, Lisbon Visitor and Convention Bureau
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