When MICE are welcome to stay

The latest official figures reveal that the tourism sector of the economy contributed PLN 1.64 bln – or 6.4 pct – to Poland’s GDP in 2013. Out of this total, business meetings generate 1.9 pct of gross domestic product. The forecasts are that this year the number of people travelling on business will grow by 2 pct. A report detailing the most important facts related to business tourism in Poland was presented at the ‘Trends in Business Travel Management. Poland as a Place for International Meetings’ conference held by Orbis/Accor. Sana Consulting surveyed 350 people (150 travel managers and people directly involved in the reservation of accommodation for business trips, 100 travelling members of management boards and managers and 100 travel organisers). The data confirms that hotels and service providers for the industry should take the battle over business clients seriously, because the segment, even though it has only been growing slowly, can only become more profitable if properly exploited.

How the pie slices up

What should gladden the hearts of hoteliers is that the survey shows a growth in budgets earmarked for accommodation by 3 pct to 5 pct compared to 2013. The annual expenditure planned for this year amounts to PLN 1.5 mln for 21 pct of the firms surveyed, while 19 pct indicated that it would range from PLN 751,000 to PLN 1 mln. For 36 pct of those surveyed it turned out that the need for hotel services in 2014 would grow by app. 10 pct, while 34 pct declared that they would rather stay at the same level. An additional advantage of business trips for hoteliers is their length – in 76 pct of the companies surveyed a business trip in Poland lasts longer than one day and in 40 pct of companies it involves a minimum of one overnight stay. The amounts that companies spend on one overnight stay range from PLN 250 to PLN 300, but this depends on the city and the position in the company’s hierarchy. The most popular destinations for business trips are Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław. And what about the reservation structure in hotel chains? How many are made by corporate and business clients? “Over 60 pct of guests in 14 Qubus Hotels are people from the business segment. This is not surprising since all our hotels are business class facilities. These are characterised not only by their high quality service but also their excellent locations in the centres of well-known, business-oriented Polish cities,” claims Sylwia Gilarska-Marczak, the sales and marketing director of the Qubus Hotel network. The Orbis/Accor chain, even though it has not disclosed any data for corporate clients, appreciates the important role of business guests. “We were very happy to learn from the survey that hotels of the Accor chain are recommended by 89 pct people who make reservations. This confirms the high quality standards in our hotels,” emphasises Joanna Świerkosz, the deputy sales, distribution, marketing and revenue management director responsible for Poland and the Baltic states.

Important person

The hotel chains looking to get their hands on a slice of this cake should focus on those individuals who are responsible for the organisation of business trips (or what is often referred to as ‘corpo travel’). In Poland the travel manager is slowing becoming a established position. It is often the case that somebody from the company’s purchase department will be responsible for such activities, and as modern business develops in the country, such corporate patterns are being imported into Poland and becoming more widespread. Almost 60 pct of those surveyed by Sana Consulting indicated that their companies have created a travel manager position or cooperated with an agency that organises such trips – TMCs (Travel Management Companies). Policies for travelling are being professionalised in Poland and have been moving towards creating a position specifically dedicated to the organisation of business trips. Such positions have a great deal of decision-making power in terms of hotel budget management. What do they need to pay attention to? The travel managers of Bayer and ABB, who were invited to the conference by Orbis/Accor, emphasised how important it is to maintain good relations between them and a hotel representative, to enable an understanding of the needs of a given company in relation to business trips to be formed. Regular and direct contact are equally as important as flexibility in terms of the hotel offer. “In the Qubus Hotel chain we pay a great deal of attention to assessing guests’ needs. Thus in 80 pct of cases our first contact starts with a question about the needs, the potential and the plans of the company in terms of training sessions, development and new investment. With the help of such information we are able to draw up a genuine offer that will be of much more interest to the respondent than, for instance, mailing sent to a thousand recipients,” remarks Sylwia Gilarska-Marczak. Moreover, the hotel needs to be in a convenient location, with standards and service quality that correspond to its price. Breakfast is a very important part of the hotel service because travel managers often choose this option – an overnight stay plus breakfast. This reduces costs and saves time for the person on the business trip. Hotels in locations handy for the final destination of the business trip are often chosen, making it possible to limit the costs of getting there and back. Importantly, people who travel these days cannot imagine a trip without constant access to the internet (Wi-Fi in hotels); they also welcome special areas provided for working in the hotel and access to office equipment (computers, printers, etc.). “Those who travel on business often choose hotels that offer additional services, e.g. swimming pools, saunas and gyms. In the Qubus Hotel Kraków or the Qubus Hotel Gdańsk business guests are often keen to use the opportunity to relax in the sauna or jacuzzi. Free access to fast internet is very important. Adequate conference facilities are also crucial. Spacious, air-conditioned halls with modern conference equipment are now part of the standard offer in business class hotels,” comments Sylwia Gilarska-Marczak. Some business guests lay stress on the importance of the latest amenities, such as virtual catering, a virtual concierge, and the possibility of viewing and choosing the room before making the reservation by view rooms in photo galleries in social media. However, other costs are taken into consideration apart from good business relations and 64 pct of those who are responsible for business trip budgets have to keep these under control. “Travel managers screen offer details much more thoroughly nowadays. Specialists in business trip organisation know that on the one hand they need to lower the costs and on the other they have to care for the comfort of the people who travel,” claims Artur Lisowski, HRS’s marketing director for Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Hotels should also focus on their relationships with TMC agencies because they are increasingly often being used to reserve hotels, flight and train tickets, etc. on behalf of the client. Joanna Świerkosz of Orbis/Accor points to another important factor – the professionalism of hotel employees. “Investment in the development and education of staff is also important as they are the ones who are directly responsible for the quality of the service. Hoteliers’ skills combined with the standards of a given brand determine whether a guest is ultimately satisfied and comes back to us. Every year we encourage our staff to improve their qualifications through the internal training sessions we organise. We educate our employees in the Warsaw Académie Accor, which is one of 19 centres located across the world,” she says.

The way of the web

How can we reach the people who are responsible for the organisation of a company’s business trips? According to the survey it is clear that travel managers generally look for offers on the internet or they contact the hotel directly by phone. However, internet platforms account for 39 pct of companies’ choices, 9 pct of which are supported by reservation services. “HRS’s clients are people who travel privately and on business. More than 40,000 corporate clients and many thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises make hotel reservations through HRS. At the moment app. 60 pct of all the reservations on HRS.pl are made by people who travel on business. This group is smaller than the number of people who reserve such hotels, such as for weekends, but the frequency of business reservations has been growing,” explains Artur Lisowski. Thus reservation portals are not wasting their time and are actively exploiting the more optimistic economic climate. “At HRS we have a dedicated department responsible for cooperation with corporate clients. The department includes sales staff as well as account managers who look after the service quality because our clients’ loyalty is mainly built on the service quality and the very transparent model of cooperation. Our aim is for the client not only to lower the cost of business trips but also to improve their standard,” insists the marketing director at HRS. However, the shift towards internet tools does not only involve the possibility of making on-line reservations. Today everyone wants to be online nearly all the time and this is now possible thanks to such devices as smartphones and tablets. This is another feature of the changing standards in the cooperation between corporate clients and hotels as well as service providers. They have to follow guests’ preferences and make their offer as close to the client as possible. Consequently the number of reservations made on these devices has also been growing. We are a chain that pursues technology and that is why we launched a mobile version of our internet site at the beginning of last October. Guests can reserve rooms at the best prices and view the hotel offer on their tablets, mobile phones, etc. The mobile version of the website is also a nod towards guests who make ad hoc reservations. The new website includes our telephone number in the centre of the hotel site. Thus guests are able to quickly choose the number on their smartphones and make a reservation by phone,” says Sylwia Gilarska-Marczak.

MICE in Poland and in the world

According to the International Congress and Conference Association (ICCA), the global meetings market has continued to grow rapidly. For around 50 years the number of meetings organised around the world by international associations has been growing at a rate of 10 pct per year. Over the period 2008–2012, almost 55,000 were held at a total cost of USD 56.4 bln. And these statistics only include the most important meetings (the ICCA does not cover meetings with fewer than 50 participants, that are irregular, or have participants travelling from less than three countries). Poland dominates the Central and Eastern Europe region as a location for meetings. In 2012 there were 150 such events organised in Poland, which puts it in 25th position worldwide jointly with India, Thailand and Singapore. The Czech Republic comes 31st in the world (131 meetings), Hungary is 32nd (124), Russia is 39th (94), Croatia 40th (74), Estonia 43rd (58), Romania 45th (54), Serbia 46th (52), Lithuania 53 (41), Slovakia 57th (32), Bulgaria 61st (26) and Latvia 62nd (24). The global ranking is headed by the United States (883 meetings), followed by Germany (649) and Spain (550). As far as cities in the region are concerned Prague is the most popular and is 11th in the world (with 112 meetings). Budapest also has a high placing in 20th position (98), which it shares with Rome. Warsaw is the 49th most popular city (46). At the top of the list are the global MICE powers, such as Vienna (195 meetings), Paris (181), Berlin (172), Madrid (164) and Barcelona (154).