Ambitious plans to raise the profile and credibility of the global meetings industry has come a step nearer at EIBTM in Barcelona, when a keynote report was presented on how Tourism Satellite Accounting (TSA) can be used to identify its economic contribution.

The aim is for a minimum of three quarters of the meetings industry to standardise measurement within the next five years. 

The report - Measuring the Importance of the Meetings Industry’ was presented by Associate Professor Margaret Deery PhD, Principal Research Fellow and Prof. Leo Jago, Deputy CEO and Director of Research at the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre, a national research centre in Australia.

The report had been commissioned by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), ICCA, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), organisers of EIBTM.

Tom Nutley, chairman of RTE, who hosted the presentation said:” At long last we will have a framework within which the meetings industry can work to achieve the kind of recognition and status that it deserves.”

“The important point here is that the TSA already has United Nations recognition and endorsement so we are not starting from a zero base. The TSA is the world standard for measurement of tourism economic contribution and within its framework the true value of the meetings industry could find its relevance regarding tourism contribution to GDP.”

“It has taken two years to get to this stage but I am delighted that the objective behind the development has been wholeheartedly supported by not only the partners, but also all other leading industry associations around the world.”

“The challenge now is to put the framework into practice and that will need the understanding, determination and, above all, co-operation of countries, convention bureaux and the entire industry at every level.”

Key definition findings from the report, due to be finalised by the end of 2005 are:

· The description Meetings Industry to be universally adopted by the industry. It already has the support of key industry participants

· Meeting aims are to share ideas, discuss, motivate

· Minimum of ten participants in a venue where there is payment for usage for a minimum of a half day

The report identifies the current problems as:

· Standard industrial classifications do not identify a separate meetings industry

· The data currently collected shows enormous diversity and inconsistency

· The statistics are based on different measures of both supply and demand data

· The data is currently created for different purposes, using different methodologies and is impossible to be compared

· The quality of data collection is often not up to strict statistical standards and reliability is questionable

Mr. Dawid de Villiers, WTO’s Deputy Secretary-General said:” We were greatly encouraged when the initial findings of the report were presented to delegates from 80 countries attending the WTO’s world conference on “Tourism Satellite Account (TSA): Understanding Tourism and Designing Strategies” held at Iguazu Falls in October.”

“The Meetings Industry is an important business but unfortunately its size and importance is simply not reflected properly in official statistics. But this is just a beginning. Much work has to be done and it will not be achievable unless member states commit to a standardized TSA for the meetings industry contribution to be identified in national TSA exercises.”

ICCA's representative on the WTO task force, Past President Tuula Lindberg said: "At our recent, very successful meeting in Iguazu Falls in Brazil it was clear that for the first time ever the meetings industry is moving high up on WTO's statistics agenda. There has been solid progress in the project itself, and whilst no-one underestimates the future challenges, we are all very optimistic and convinced this approach will succeed."

Christian Mutschlechner, ICCA President said: "The meetings industry has been searching for many years for a practical way to obtain meaningful global statistics. I firmly believe this collaborative effort between ICCA, MPI, Reed Travel Exhibitions and the WTO is creating a methodology that will achieve this goal, and it is wonderful to see as a by-product of this work that the United Nations now recognises our industry in its official economic categorisation. This could never have been achieved without our partnership with WTO."

Didier Scaillet, Director of European Operations and Global Development for MPI said: "This joint project generated a significant interest when presented at the WTO Tourism Satellite Accounting conference in Iguazu as more and more governments recognise the importance of the meetings industry as an economic development contributor, but without being able to quantify it yet. We have now started a positive dynamic that will help the entire meetings industry. It also demonstrates what we can achieve when we work in partnership over essential issues."

Prof Deery, who acted as project leader for the year-long study and director of the centre, said that the report will provide criteria and recommendations for the statistics that are collected and the assumptions underlying these statistics.

“The key issue now for the meetings industry worldwide is to develop a plan for the coming years to consolidate these criteria and implement the recommendations.“