Brief introduction to business tourism

                                                          
In the coming blog the author will like to give a brief introduction to business tourism. Business tourism one of the key components of the overall tourism industry comprises of both inbound as well as outbound tourist who visits a place for business purpose. It consists of conferences, meetings, exhibitions, outdoor events etc.


Salient features of business tourism:-

• Since business tourism involves top ranking executives from business it is of high value both in terms of service expected as well as in terms of yield.

• It is active throughout the year.

• It can stimulate investments in a region.

• It can boost leisure tourism. It had been seen that 40% of the business visitors to a destination do return to the destination along with their family. ( Corporate expenditure survey report, 1998)

• Top quality infrastructure and other facilities are needed in order to business tourism to flourish.

• Generally business tourism does not have any side effects on the local ecosystem. Hence it is considered as a very sustainable form of tourism.

Types of business tourism:-

• Conferences and meetings: - Conferences and meetings constitute a major part of business tourism. It includes Annual general meetings, sales meetings, training courses, management meetings, business presentations.

• Exhibitions: - exhibition provides a friendly platform where seller and buyers can meet cordially and deals can be finalized. There are basically three types of exhibitions, public exhibitions where the exhibits are sold to general public, business exhibition where the exhibits are sold to a narrow set of business customers often coming from a particular industry type and business/public exhibitions where the customers are both business houses as well as general public.

• Incentive travel: - are the tour packages provided by business to its employees and external sales agent as rewards.

• Corporate events: - it consists of a wide range of events such as client entertainment programs, vendor entertainment programs, incentive travels, meetings, conferences etc. the definition of corporate events are very wide and often overlaps with other types of business tourism.

• Outdoor events: - primarily consists of wide range of outdoor activities such as car shows, Christmas fairs, music concerts, culture and art festivals, firework display etc.

Factors influencing business tourism:-

• Sound infrastructure, availability of top quality hotels, transportation, communication network.

• Frequent airline service.

• Moderate climate.

• Investor friendly government.

• Availability of big conference halls along with meeting rooms and hotels in the nearby vicinity.

References:- Business tourism briefing, Available at < http://www.businesstourismpartnership.com/pubs/briefing.pdf>