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, 30 JUNE, 2009		NUMBER: 4.4.8/4.
				OBLIGED TO NOTIFY DATA SOURCE

CONGRESSES AND OTHER BUSINESS MEETINGS, APRIL 2009

In April 2009, the number of business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 499. There were 240 meetings with overnight stays and 259 without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 950. Each meeting was held 2 days on the average. The number of participants at all meetings was 42 799, out of which the number of domestic participants was 39 436 (92%) and the number of foreign ones was 3 363 (8%).

According to professional organisers, the most meetings, 229 of them (46%), were organised by business entities.

In April 2009, the turnover of 26 099 153 kuna was generated from business meetings. Out of the total turnover, 23 102 108 kuna (89%) was generated from meetings with overnight stays and 2 997 045 kuna (11%) from meetings without overnight stays.

In the period from January to April 2009, there were 1 603 business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia. Out of this number, there were 719 (45%) meetings with overnight stays and 884 (55%) without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 2 953. Business meetings were attended by 130 648 participants, out of which 123 218 (94%) domestic and 7 430 (6%) foreign ones.

In the period from January to April 2009, the total turnover generated from all business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 55 168 548 kuna. Out of this sum, 44 552 746 kuna (81%) were generated from meetings with overnight stays and 10 615 802 kuna (19%) from meetings without them.

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

	Business entities	Halls	Seats
Total	85	383	41 469
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	80	333	27 331
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	5	50	14 138

2.   BUSINESS MEETINGS HELD IN PERIOD FROM JANUARY TO APRIL 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
IV. 2009.
Total	499	950	42 799	26 801	15 998	40 934	26 099 153
Meetings with overnights	240	612	21 408	5 410	15 998	40 934	23 102 108
Meetings without overnights	259	338	21 391	21 391	-	-	2 997 045
I. – IV. 2009.
Total	1 603	2 953	130 648	95 048	35 600	82 743	55 168 548
Meetings with overnights	719	1 769	49 933	14 333	35 600	82 743	44 552 746
Meetings without overnights	884	1 184	80 715	80 715	-	-	10 615 802

3.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, APRIL 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	499	950	42 799	39 436	3 363	40 934	31 538	9 396	26 099 153
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	442	874	34 826	31 667	3 159	40 934	31 538	9 396	25 865 897
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	57	76	7 973	7 769	204	-	-	-	233 256

4.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, JANUARY – APRIL 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	1 603	2 953	130 648	123 218	7 430	82 743	64 030	18 713	55 168 548
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	1 473	2 788	103 843	96 622	7 221	82 743	64 030	18 713	54 230 663
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	130	165	26 805	26 596	209	-	-	-	937 885

5. BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE, APRIL 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	499	950	42 799	39 436	3 363	40 934	31 538	9 396	26 099 153
Corporate/business meeting	122	179	6 169	5 457	712	2 584	758	1 826	3 518 380
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	277	592	25 208	23 222	1 986	29 723	23 231	6 492	18 070 652
Public conference/lecture	27	44	3 819	3 660	159	1 810	1 633	177	1 816 688
Governmental conferences	2	2	250	250	-	-	-	-	12 300
General assembly	6	10	836	836	-	144	144	-	46 841
Convention	1	4	1 300	1 300	-	-	-	-	40 000
Incentive arrangement	5	14	109	56	53	221	111	110	161 490
Team building	17	55	2 293	2 010	283	6 272	5 631	641	2 032 313
Other	42	50	2 815	2 645	170	180	30	150	400 489

6.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPES, JANUARY – APRIL 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	1 603	2 953	130 648	123 218	7 430	82 743	64 030	18 713	55 168 548
Corporate/business meeting	462	737	22 858	21 034	1 824	7 765	4 334	3 431	10 213 734
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	854	1 718	75 536	71 304	4 232	62 785	49 602	13 183	36 628 137
Public conference/lecture	65	99	9 020	8 675	345	2 497	2 174	323	2 949 192
Governmental conferences	4	4	365	365	-	-	-	-	28 491
General assembly	30	38	5 355	5 355	-	168	168	-	133 145
Convention	4	7	2 682	2 682	-	-	-	-	131 989
Incentive arrangement	13	29	966	663	303	1 826	1 104	722	1 114 995
Team building	36	94	2 969	2 636	333	6 636	5 933	703	2 354 829
Other	135	227	10 897	10 504	393	1 066	715	351	1 614 036

7. BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, APRIL 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	499	950	42 799	39 436	3 363	40 934	31 538	9 396	26 099 153
International organisations	15	35	1 272	900	372	1 903	485	1 418	871 880
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	31	62	1 899	1 692	207	2 711	2 173	538	1 196 935
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	38	76	4 333	4 197	136	3 162	2 983	179	1 348 878
Travel agencies	35	95	3 412	3 048	364	5 541	4 900	641	4 429 540
Business entities (enterprises)	229	378	15 923	15 425	498	9 428	8 217	1 211	7 249 911
Professional associations	64	132	7 801	7 598	203	9 200	8 979	221	3 437 457
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties, NGOs)	53	106	5 994	5 439	555	5 968	3 565	2 403	4 911 161
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	34	66	2 165	1 137	1 028	3 021	236	2 785	2 653 391

8.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JANUARY – APRIL 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	1 603	2 953	130 648	123 218	7 430	82 743	64 030	18 713	55 168 548
International organisations	35	95	2 129	1 612	517	2 674	763	1 911	1 889 660
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	90	174	5 372	5 131	241	4 906	4 300	606	2 608 067
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	89	201	11 556	11 132	424	7 885	7 175	710	3 909 995
Travel agencies	101	222	10 362	9 162	1 200	14 783	11 352	3 431	8 407 851
Business entities (enterprises)	831	1 418	59 297	57 667	1 630	19 783	16 203	3 580	19 233 023
Professional associations	163	303	15 920	15 568	352	15 451	14 662	789	6 528 963
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties,  NGOs)	200	360	20 723	20 021	702	11 856	9 106	2 750	7 808 261
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	94	180	5 289	2 925	2 364	5 405	469	4 936	4 782 728

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Data sources

The data source is the regular monthly survey on business tourism conducted through the Report on 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) as well as mediators and organisers of such meetings and incentive travels (e.g. travel agencies). 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.

Congress is a meeting 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/lectures 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 the method of 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 the 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