Deery, Margaret, Jago, Leo Kenneth, Fredline, Liz and Dwyer, Larry (2005) The National Business Events Study: an Evaluation of the Australian Business Events Sector. Common Ground Publishing, Victoria.

Abstract

The business events sector is recognised as a high-yield component of the tourism industry with direct connections to other key areas such as trade, foreign affairs, education, science, training and communications. It has great potential for further expansion. A major study on Australia’s meetings and exhibitions sector was undertaken by the Bureau of Tourism Research in 1997 and this study estimated that business events contributed $7 billion to the Australian economy (Johnson, Foo and O’Halloran, 1999). Given that the business events sector appears to have developed substantially over recent years, it is timely to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the sector and to include other components of the sector, such as incentive travel. The National Business Events Study (NBES) is a more comprehensive evaluation of Australia’s business events sector than has previously been undertaken. This report provides an overview of the business events sector. In particular, the report provides an evaluation of the industry’s contribution to the Australian economy. In so doing, the study has investigated all components of the business events sector including exhibitions, meetings and conferences, and the incentive travel sectors. Each component of the study is underpinned by information obtained from business event venues regarding the number of events and participants they hosted over the 2002/03 financial year. This information was used to weight the data in order to estimate the size and scope of the sector. This report is based on the findings from a number of surveys directed to the different components of the business events sector. Exhibitors, exhibition organisers and trade visitors were surveyed to obtain an understanding of the exhibition sector. In the meetings and conferences sector, meeting and conference delegates were surveyed as well as the organisers of those events, while data from the incentive travel sector were obtained from destination management companies, inbound tour operators and incentive travel accommodation providers. The findings from these surveys are presented in this report with a summary of the key findings provided in a stand-alone Executive Summary (Deery, Jago, Fredline and Dwyer, 2004).

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