FIRST RELEASE		CROATIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS 10000 ZAGREB, ILICA 3, PHONE: +385 1 4806-111, P.O.B. 80, CROATIA ISSN 1334-0565
YEAR: XLVI.	ZAGREB, 28 JANUARY, 2010		NUMBER: 4.4.8/11.
				OBLIGED TO NOTIFY DATA SOURCE

CONGRESSES AND OTHER BUSINESS MEETINGS, NOVEMBER 2009

In November 2009, the number of business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 495. There were 211 meetings with overnight stays and 284 without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 900. Each meeting was held 2 days on the average. The number of participants at all meetings was 46 366, out of which the number of domestic participants was 42 866 (92%) and the number of foreign ones was 3 500 (8%).

According to professional organisers, the most meetings, 231 of them (47%), were organised by business entities.

In November 2009, the turnover of 20 642 880 kuna was generated from business meetings. Out of the total turnover, 16 397 809 kuna (79%) were generated from the meetings with overnight stays and 4 245 071 kuna (21%) from the meetings without overnight stays.

In the period from January to November 2009, there were 4 486 business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia. Out of this number, there were 2 141 (48%) meetings with overnight stays and 2 345 (52%) without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 8 773. Business meetings were attended by 350 675 participants, out of which 311 218 (89%) domestic and 39 457 (11%) foreign ones.

In the period from January to November 2009, the total turnover generated from all business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 210 907 915 kuna. Out of this sum, 181 726 080 kuna (86%) were generated from meetings with overnight stays and 29 181 835 kuna (14%) from meetings without them.

1.   BUSINESS ENTITIES IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, NOVEMBER 2009

	Business entities	Halls	Seats
Total	79	369	40 758
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	74	334	26 920
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	5	35	13 838

2.   BUSINESS MEETINGS HELD IN PERIOD FROM JANUARY – NOVEMBER 2009

	Business meetings	Number of days  at meetings	Participants			Night overstays	Turnover generated by meeting,  kuna, incl. VAT
			Total	Participants without overnight stays	Participants with overnight stays
XI. 2009.
Total	495	900	46 366	34 723	11 643	25 818	20 642 880
Meetings with overnights	211	538	16 783	5 140	11 643	25 818	16 397 809
Meetings without overnights	284	362	29 583	29 583	-	-	4 245 071
I. – XI. 2009.
Total	4 486	8 773	350 675	230 007	120 668	290 059	210 907 915
Meetings with overnights	2 141	5 577	158 049	37 381	120 668	290 059	181 726 080
Meetings without overnights	2 345	3 196	192 626	192 626	-	-	29 181 835

3.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, NOVEMBER 2009

	Business meetings	Number of days at meeting	Participants			Night overstays			Turnover  generated by meeting,  kuna, incl. VAT
			Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total	By  domestic  participants	By  foreign participants
Total	495	900	46 366	42 866	3 500	25 818	19 730	6 088	20 642 880
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	462	861	39 798	36 451	3 347	25 818	19 730	6 088	20 329 425
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	33	39	6 568	6 415	153	-	-	-	313 455

4.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, JANUARY – NOVEMBER 2009

	Business meetings	Number of days at meeting	Participants			Night overstays			Turnover generated by meeting,  kuna, incl. VAT
			Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total	By domestic  participants	By foreign participants
Total	4 486	8 773	350 675	311 218	39 457	290 059	192 589	97 470	210 907 915
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	4 184	8 336	297 459	259 300	38 159	290 059	192 589	97 470	208 633 499
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	302	437	53 216	51 918	1 298	-	-	-	2 274 416

5.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE, NOVEMBER 2009

	Business meetings	Number of days at meeting	Participants, total			Night overstays			Turnover generated by meeting,  kuna,  incl. VAT
			Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total	By domestic  participants	By  foreign participants
Total	495	900	46 366	42 866	3 500	25 818	19 730	6 088	20 642 880
Corporate/business meeting	127	182	9 195	8 927	268	1 325	1 132	193	2 348 595
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	252	511	24 267	22 099	2 168	17 050	13 784	3 266	12 157 895
Public conference/lecture	36	74	4 893	4 666	227	3 392	2 443	949	2 206 896
General assembly	15	21	2 005	1 867	138	247	211	36	496 855
Convention	3	7	241	52	189	215	-	215	111 125
Incentive arrangement	12	30	700	291	409	1 610	471	1 139	1 654 896
Team building	17	34	919	909	10	1 011	1 003	8	787 537
Other^1)	33	41	4 146	4 055	91	968	686	282	879 081

1)  Governmental conference and other types of business meetings

6.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPES, JANUARY – NOVEMBER 2009

	Business meetings	Number of days at meeting	Participants			Night overstays			Turnover generated by meeting,  kuna, incl. VAT
			Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total	By domestic  participants	By  foreign participants
Total	4 486	8 773	350 675	311 218	39 457	290 059	192 589	97 470	210 907 915
Corporate/business meeting	1 238	1 899	60 390	55 360	5 030	16 894	9 131	7 763	25 400 080
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	2 349	5 211	198 704	173 748	24 956	217 051	147 868	69 183	144 909 722
Public conference/lecture	225	406	27 048	24 777	2 271	14 607	10 073	4 534	13 438 718
Governmental conferences	12	27	1 157	906	251	971	339	632	687 543
General assembly	84	106	16 983	16 747	236	2 314	2 272	42	1 420 730
Convention	16	33	4 571	4 256	315	1 259	828	431	1 012 578
Incentive arrangement	91	245	5 549	2 582	2 967	12 869	4 286	8 583	11 205 137
Team building	130	304	9 133	8 364	769	17 591	15 950	1 641	7 120 362
Other	341	542	27 140	24 478	2 662	6 503	1 842	4 661	5 713 045

7.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, NOVEMBER 2009

	Business meetings	Number of days at meeting	Participants			Night overstays			Turnover  generated by meeting,  kuna, incl. VAT
			Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total	By domestic  participants	By  foreign participants
Total	495	900	46 366	42 866	3 500	25 818	19 730	6 088	20 642 880
International organisations	10	30	824	610	214	1 577	1 177	400	683 834
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	23	41	1 705	1 577	128	890	543	347	1 267 993
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	27	62	4 405	3 135	1 270	4 711	2 610	2 101	1 554 522
Travel agencies	16	28	1 084	1 033	51	1 441	1 285	156	788 211
Business entities (enterprises)	231	372	21 691	21 406	285	5 843	5 584	259	6 267 573
Professional associations	78	156	7 091	6 736	355	6 658	5 815	843	5 582 344
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties, NGOs)	72	123	6 805	6 772	33	2 586	2 552	34	1 697 522
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	38	88	2 761	1 597	1 164	2 112	164	1 948	2 800 881

8.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JANUARY – NOVEMBER 2009

	Business meetings	Number of days at meeting	Participants			Night overstays			Turnover generated by meeting,  kuna, incl. VAT
			Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total	By domestic  participants	By  foreign participants
Total	4 486	8 773	350  675	311 218	39 457	290 059	192 589	97 470	210 907 915
International organisations	116	343	7  719	4 250	3 469	13 614	3 680	9 934	10 279 089
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	240	489	20  016	18 721	1 295	21 431	18 320	3 111	13 488 751
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	240	616	29  312	25 642	3 670	26 224	18 282	7 942	14 674 663
Travel agencies	294	667	24  024	18 769	5 255	41 734	26 885	14 849	28 975 922
Business entities (enterprises)	2 195	3 708	148  856	141 864	6 992	58 295	44 796	13 499	58 846 425
Professional associations	520	1 086	50 014	46 189	3 825	68 733	55 292	13 441	39 522 555
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties,  NGOs)	520	947	46 804	45 100	1 704	26 459	21 752	4 707	16 110 046
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	361	917	23 930	10 683	13 247	33 569	3 582	29 987	29 010 464

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Data sources

The data source is the monthly Report of Business Meeting (TU-23 form).

Coverage and comparability

The survey covers all business entities performing business meetings, incentive arrangements and team building programmes (hotel and restaurant facilities, universities, concert and congress halls, fair, cultural facilities). The survey covers all business meetings with at least one realised overnight and all business meetings without realised overnights attended by 20 participants or more.

Due to the fact that not all of reporting units have established their registers of business meetings, the coverage in this survey is not full yet.

Definitions

Corporate/business meetings are those business-oriented meetings in which the participants represent the same company, corporate group, joint-venture, or client/provider relations.

Congresses are meetings of generally fixed frequency having an extraordinary nature, in which participants belonging to different places meet at a predetermined site and time in order to discuss things. Scientific congresses and conferences can be subcategorised into forums, colloquiums, seminars and symposiums.

Public conferences are unidirectional meetings in which discussion is proposed by the conference organiser, the audience taking an essentially passive role, and where specialised knowledge is not necessarily required. 

Governmental conferences are technical or political meetings between governments with the aim of discussing national or international topics to reach agreements of a political nature.

General assemblies are civil meetings, limited to the members of one organisation, of an internal nature, committed to discussing the function of the organisation itself, and to signing legally binding agreements (election of candidates, reviewing programmes, setting norms and rules) concerning predominated issues.

Conventions are general and formal meetings of legislative bodies, social or economic groups in order to provide information on a particular situation in order to deliberate and, consequently, establish consent on policies among the participants. Usually of limited duration with set objectives, but no determined frequency.

Incentive travel is a marketing method aimed at stimulating the employees of a certain corporation and improving the corporation’s functioning. Incentive travel is a stimulating travel given as an award to the best employees of a certain corporation. It has replaced classic stimulating money award etc. This is the way firms thank their clients, motivate or reward their employees for their loyalty and hard work invested in firm’s efficiency, by taking them to a nice incentive travel. Incentive programmes include: golfing, sailing, rafting, ballooning, shooting, cycling, paint ball, ATV safari etc.

Team building programme is a special type of incentive travel offering active relaxation at the same time, organised by agencies catering for the employees of certain firms and institutions with the aim of boosting the team spirit, practicing coordination and offering other incentives.

Other types of business meetings are presentations, candidate testing, promoting campaigns, religious congresses and similar meetings.

Business meetings with overnights are meetings at which at least a part of participants realised an overnight.

Business meetings without overnights are meetings at which no participants realised an overnight. Regarding meetings without overnights, e.g. evaluation of candidates for a job, it is possible for the number of days to be more than one, since a meeting may last for several days, but not all participants stayed all the time at the meeting (that is, there were no overnights).

Professional organisers of business meetings or incentive travels are institutions, associations, companies that organise a business meeting (orderers), such as: international governmental organisations (e.g. UN, EU, EFTA, OECD, NATO), international NGOs, the Government of the Republic of Croatia and administration, bodies of state and local government and self-government, universities, polytechnics, research centres, academies, institutes, travel agencies, business entities (enterprises), professional associations and others (e.g. banks, insurance agencies, political parties, NGOs, religious organisations etc.) as well as foreign enterprises, institutions and organisations.

Turnover generated by meetings or incentive travels in kuna (including VAT) includes the turnover of accommodation services, food services (restaurants, bar services, cafés), hire of the meeting rooms, display area and technical equipment when the reporting is being done by accommodation facilities, fair, universities, cultural institutions or other service providers.

Abbreviatins

ATV       All Terrain Vehicle

EFTA    European Free Trade Association

e.g.        for example (from Latin: exempli gratia)

etc.        and so on (from Latin: et cetera)

EU         European Union

incl.       including

NATO   North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

NGO     non-government organisation

OECD   Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
              Development

VAT       value added tax

UN        United Nations

Symbols

-  no occurrence