As Puerto Rico continues to evolve as a premier meeting destination, obtaining feedback from meeting planners is becoming an evermore critical way to recognize the latest needs and wants of clients, as well as providing a key to understanding the site selection and other decision processes among planners.

To keep on pace with planners, the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau has just initiated a new meeting planner feedback program, providing three ways to obtain feedback throughout the site selection and meeting implantation process.

The new meeting feedback program, called “MEETINGScope,” began in March 2004 with initial results expected to begin being available within the next few weeks. Surveys are conducted with meeting planners by an independent research organization via on-line surveys at two junctures: once a contract is signed and after a meeting is held in Puerto Rico.

The third way in which meeting planners are being asked for feedback, is among potential Puerto Rico clients who selected another destination for a meeting locale to determine why and how Puerto Rico can book the business in the future. The ‘live’ results are now posted immediately through an Internet site.

“This new meeting planner feedback program represents the cutting edge in on-line hospitality research and we anticipate a significant increase in the level and quality of feedback from this method of surveying meeting planners,” stated Ana Maria Viscasillas, the president and chief executive officer of the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau.

“The program lets us capture a wealth of information that can help the Bureau improve its services, develop new programs catering to the needs of meeting planners, as well as letting us provide timely feedback to our partners to continually see where our meeting community is doing well and where we might benefit from improvement.”

The on-line meeting planner feedback surveys are conducted by Unifocus, a Dallas-based research firm which serves the hospitality industry worldwide by offering full-service operational analysis, financial and labor management applications, as well as staff, meeting planner and guest satisfaction measurement programs.

The system also allows the Bureau to benchmark its results in comparison to other destinations, as well as to customize reports based on specific sales people, markets and other key factors. The Puerto Rico Convention Bureau is one of the first Convention Bureau organizations to utilize this meeting feedback program.