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Growth and investments set the pace for Austria’s Meeting Industry

ÖW and ACB present the 2014 Meeting Industry Report Austria

• Increases in the number of events, participants and overnight stays made 2014 a successful year for the meeting industry.

• Conferences remained the strongest event format. Small and medium sized conferences (10 – 500 participants), with a 94% share, were the driving force behind the Austrian meeting industry.

• Owing to larger numbers of participants and longer durations, international conferences generated four times as many overnight stays as national ones.

• Innovations in the meeting sector guarantee that a great many (large-­scale) conferences will also take place in Austria in the future. An ACB survey has shown that the 2012 to 2017 meeting industry investment volume amounts to approximately Euro 138 million. Investments have focussed on technology, facilities and refurbishment.‘

The Austrian Convention Bureau (ACB) and the Austrian National Tourist Office (ÖW, Österreich Werbung) present the Austrian meeting statistics for the fifth time. In 2014, the total volume was 17,028 events with 1.46 million participants, relating to a 9.7% increase in events and a 2.1% increase in participants over the previous year. As in previous years, the 2014 Meeting Industry Report Austria (mira) reports growth in all the three segments: conferences, corporate meetings and seminars. Together, they generated about 2.8 million overnight stays in 2014. As in the previous year, the meeting industry thus had a 2.1% share in the total tourism-­related overnight stays. The 3,842 conferences made up only one fifth of the total volume of events in Austria, but they generated half of all participants and three quarters of all overnight stays. International events were of particular significance in this context. “International conferences are the Austrian meeting industry segment that is generating overnight stays with significant value creation. More participants and longer durations brought about 1.7 million overnight stays, which was four times more than national conferences”, explains Petra Stolba, managing director of the Austrian National Tourist Office. This is why the joint activities of the Austrian National Tourist Office and the Convention Bureaus of the individual provinces have focussed on international convention platforms such as IBTM in Barcelona or IMEX in Frankfurt. “Austria, with its excellent infrastructure, the innovative strength of its conference industry and its unique quality, is positioned there as being the ideal location for meetings and conferences,” says Stolba. Regarding locations, conference hotels have gradually picked up over the past years. In 2014 they accounted for 32% and were thus clearly in the lead followed by universities and educational institutions and centres for conferences and trade-­fairs (21% each). Hosting almost half of all events, Vienna remained the spearhead of the meeting industry. In the provinces – above all in the respective capital cities – the industry also benefited from this global growth segment.

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Investing in the future

ACB member survey. Steadily growing numbers of conferences and meetings prove that Austria has managed to maintain its international position as top conference destination despite an ever increasing competition. Austrian entrepreneurs are willing to invest to improve quality adequately. Technology, facilities and refurbishment. Last month, the Austrian Convention Bureau did a survey among its members to find out how much has been invested into the conference and meeting industry between 2012 and 2017. The figures are impressive: the total investment volume amounts to approximately Euro 138 million. About Euro 105 million were spent over the past three years, another Euro 33 million have been budgeted until 2017. Businesses think ahead and invest mainly in technology, facilities and refurbishment. The meeting industry has invested considerably. Investments in the meeting sector are rarely fully or even partially subsidised on the federal, provincial or regional level. About 73% of the investments are fully self-­financed. 1 “Organisers of conferences and meetings are being challenged to present scientific content and training in a more up-­to-­date and attractive manner. Suppliers, especially conference centres and conference venues, have to support this development and are therefore required to invest first and foremost in technical infrastructure but also in the general interior of conference halls. The cooperation between clients and suppliers improves the quality of the outcome of scientific conferences, i.e. enhanced and intensified but also more interactive professional development”, comments Christian Mutschlechner, president of the Austrian Convention Bureau, on the investment survey.

1 45% of ACB members participated in the survey.

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Conferences in Austria

Growths rates doubled compared to previous year. In total, 3,842 conferences were held in Austria in 2014;; this is a growth rate of 15%, representing the greatest increase in the course of the past three years. The number of participants increased by 7.4%. Small and medium-­sized conferences accounted for a dominant 94.3% market share and were thus the stars of the industry. In 2014, 53.6% of all conferences taking place in Austria had up to 100 participants, 40.7% had between 100 and 500 participants. The highest increase amounted to 22.5% over the 2013 value and was accounted for by the conference segment with 1,001 and 2,000 participants. Small share – great effect. 27 large-­scale conferences (> 2,000 participants) generated 165,298 participants in 2014. This segment was thus responsible for only 0.7% of all conferences but for 20.6% of the total number of conference participants. On the other hand, small and medium-­sized conferences (10 – 500 participants) accounted for 94.3% of all conferences but only for 57.4% of conference participants. More conferences – fewer participants. Conferences still get smaller – in 2014, the average number of participants was only 209;; in 2013 it was still 224, in 2009 even 293. Focus on conference participants. Conference participants stay at events for an average of 2.5 days (6-­year mean value). In 2014, they mainly participated in conferences in October, November and September. They were on holidays in August. In 2014, only 1.8% of the grand total of participants took part in events in August. In 2014, the top conference topics remained the same as in the previous years, i.e. economy & politics as well as human medicine.

Corporate meetings in Austria

A great combination – corporate meetings and hotels. In 2014, corporate meetings again were preferably held in hotels (86%), welcoming 66% of all participants. Slight increases. In all, 7,088 corporate meetings were held in Austria, which is a slight increase of 1.8% over the previous year. Declining numbers of participants. With a decrease of 18%, national corporate meetings exhibited a major slump. National corporate meetings finished with an average number of only 46 participants compared with 57 in 2013. With an average of 72 participants, an international corporate meeting generated 26 participants more than a national meeting. Unchanged duration. For the past years, national corporate meetings had a constant duration of approximately 2 days, international corporate meetings on the other hand, tended to get longer (2.5 days).

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Seminars in Austria

In 2014, the number of seminars increased by 16.9% and amounted to 6,098. Just as corporate meetings, seminars were also organised preferably in hotels. With 70.6%, the conference hotels accounted for the highest share of seminars. The most frequent topic of seminars was economy & politics.

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Meeting industry in the individual provinces

Vienna has remained number one. Just as in 2013, Vienna remained the flagship of the Austrian meeting industry in 2014. Among the provinces, it continued to have the largest shares of conferences, corporate meetings and seminars and thus a considerable 46.2% share of the industry’s total volume. As regards conferences and corporate meetings, Salzburg and Tyrol came second and third. Burgenland starting up. In 2014, the 9th province became part of the corporate meeting and seminar statistics for the first time. As compared to other provinces, conferences boomed most in Burgenland (+68.8%). Provinces focused on corporate meetings. Percentagewise, seminars were concentrated in Vienna, whereas the other provinces jointly accounted for the largest share in the sector of corporate meetings. Overall, however, Vienna still accounted for the greatest share in corporate meetings (30%). Salzburg caught up and, with its 23.9% share, came close to the federal capital. More conference participants. Fewer participants in corporate meetings. Burgenland, Upper Austria and Vorarlberg excelled in increasing the number of conference participants. As to corporate meetings, there was a total decline of 12.1%;; only Vorarlberg managed a considerable increase of 41.8%. Vienna, Salzburg and Tyrol generated overnight stays. Although Tyrol and Salzburg had to face declines in the total volume of overnight stays generated by the meeting industry, they still saw large volumes. More overnight stays were reported for conferences and seminars, for corporate meetings the figures mostly declined. Capital cities as true centres of provinces. More than one third (42%) of all conferences, corporate meetings and seminars took place in the provincial capitals and accounted for more than half of the overnight stays generated by all events (53.2%).

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14 facts for the year 2014

• The trend: a 10% annual increase in the meeting industry.

• Continually growing business segment: 15% increase in conferences over the previous year.

• Only ⅕ of all events were conferences;; however, conferences generated ½ of the

number of participants and ¾ of the total volume of overnight stays.

• With a 94% market share, small and medium-­sized conferences (10 – 500 participants) were dominant.

• 27 large-­scale conferences (>2,000 participants) had a market share of only about

1%, but they generated 21% of all participants.

• The average conference duration was 2.5 days (past 6 years’ mean value)

• Conferences get smaller. In 2009, a conference still had an average number of 293 participants, in 2014 it was only 209.

• International conferences generated overnight stays: 50% of conferences – 80%

of overnight stays.

• With the largest shares in all sectors, Vienna was the flagship of the Austrian meeting industry.

• Capital cities were the top conference destinations (42% of all meetings).

• Provinces focussed on corporate meetings.

• Most significant areas of investment are technology, facilities and refurbishment.

• A large percentage of meeting industry investments are self-­financed.

• Successful statistics through good cooperation: a joint calling card for Austria’s meeting industry.