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 JULY, 2009		NUMBER: 4.4.8/5.
				OBLIGED TO NOTIFY DATA SOURCE

CONGRESSES AND OTHER BUSINESS MEETINGS, MAY 2009

In May 2009, the number of business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 569. There were 275 meetings with overnight stays and 294 without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 1 157. Each meeting was held 2 days on the average. The number of participants at all meetings was 42 542, out of which the number of domestic participants was 35 846 (84%) and the number of foreign ones was 6 696 (16%).

According to professional organisers, the most meetings, 267 of them (47%), were organised by business entities.

In May 2009, the turnover of 34 859 941 kuna was generated from business meetings. Out of the total turnover, 31 562 379 kuna (91%) was generated from meetings with overnight stays and 3 297 562 kuna (9%) from meetings without overnight stays.

In the period from January to May 2009, there were 2 172 business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia. Out of this number, there were 994 (46%) meetings with overnight stays and 1 178 (54%) without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 4 110. Business meetings were attended by 173 190 participants, out of which 159 064 (92%) domestic and 14 126 (8%) foreign ones.

In the period from January to May 2009, the total turnover generated from all business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 90 028 489 kuna. Out of this sum, 76 115 125 kuna (85%) were generated from meetings with overnight stays and 13 913 364 kuna (15%) from meetings without them.

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

	Business entities	Halls	Seats
Total	92	403	43 820
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	86	367	29 902
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	6	36	13 918

2.    BUSINESS MEETINGS HELD IN PERIOD FROM JANUARY – MAY 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
V. 2009.
Total	569	1 157	42 542	21 639	20 903	55 102	34 859 941
Meetings with overnights	275	730	24 662	3 759	20 903	55 102	31 562 379
Meetings without overnights	294	427	17 880	17 880	-	-	3 297 562
I. – V. 2009.
Total	2 172	4 110	173 190	116 687	56 503	137 845	90 028 489
Meetings with overnights	994	2 499	74 595	18 092	56 503	137 845	76 115 125
Meetings without overnights	1 178	1 611	98 595	98 595	-	-	13 913 364

3.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, MAY 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	569	1 157	42 542	35 846	6 696	55 102	35 043	20 059	34 859 941
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	528	1 097	39 458	32 921	6 537	55 102	35 043	20 059	34 750 733
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	41	60	3 084	2 925	159	-	-	-	109 208

4.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, JANUARY – MAY 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	2 172	4 110	173 190	159 064	14 126	137 845	99 073	38 772	90 028 489
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	2 001	3 885	143 301	129 543	13 758	137 845	99 073	38 772	88 981 396
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	171	225	29 889	29 521	368	-	-	-	1 047 093

5.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE, MAY 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	569	1 157	42 542	35 846	6 696	55 102	35 043	20 059	34 859 941
Corporate/business meeting	126	172	5 599	5 144	455	1 049	615	434	2 032 859
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	302	753	25 348	19 962	5 386	43 320	25 520	17 800	26 530 242
Public conference/lecture	40	59	3 262	3 128	134	1 834	1 480	354	2 169 845
Governmental conferences	1	1	250	250	-	-	-	-	11 500
General assembly	10	12	911	911	-	84	84	-	43 319
Convention	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Incentive arrangement	12	24	1 045	706	339	1 868	990	878	1 442 839
Team building	29	72	2 882	2 653	229	6 810	6 268	542	2 117 357
Other	49	64	3 245	3 092	153	137	86	51	511 980

6.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPES, JANUARY – MAY 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	2 172	4 110	173 190	159 064	14 126	137 845	99 073	38 772	90 028 489
Corporate/business meeting	588	909	28 457	26 178	2 279	8 814	4 949	3 865	12 246 593
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	1 156	2 471	100 884	91 266	9 618	106 105	75 122	30 983	63 158 379
Public conference/lecture	105	158	12 282	11 803	479	4 331	3 654	677	5 119 037
Governmental conferences	5	5	615	615	-	-	-	-	39 991
General assembly	40	50	6 266	6 266	-	252	252	-	176 464
Convention	4	7	2 682	2 682	-	-	-	-	131 989
Incentive arrangement	25	53	2 011	1 369	642	3 694	2 094	1 600	2 557 834
Team building	65	166	5 851	5 289	562	13 446	12 201	1 245	4 472 186
Other	184	291	14 142	13 596	546	1 203	801	402	2 126 016

7.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, MAY 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	569	1 157	42 542	35 846	6 696	55 102	35 043	20 059	34 859 941
International organisations	18	53	1 178	788	390	2 218	644	1 574	1 471 880
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	32	71	5 502	5 273	229	7 475	6 648	827	3 529 864
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	32	70	3 261	2 915	346	2 179	1 338	841	1 427 378
Travel agencies	40	91	3 819	2 966	853	9 315	6 571	2 744	5 203 234
Business entities (enterprises)	267	451	14 547	12 827	1 720	8 606	5 245	3 361	7 943 598
Professional associations	77	193	7 739	6 241	1 498	16 570	9 993	6 577	10 994 909
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties, NGOs)	61	117	3 665	3 517	148	3 885	3 529	356	2 043 270
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	42	111	2 831	1 319	1 512	4 854	1 075	3 779	2 245 808

8.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JANUARY – MAY 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	2 172	4 110	173 190	159 064	14 126	137 845	99 073	38 772	90 028 489
International organisations	53	148	3 307	2 400	907	4 892	1 407	3 485	3 361 540
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	122	245	10 874	10 404	470	12 381	10 948	1 433	6 137 931
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	121	271	14 817	14 047	770	10 064	8 513	1 551	5 337 373
Travel agencies	141	313	14 181	12 128	2 053	24 098	17 923	6 175	13 611 085
Business entities (enterprises)	1 098	1 869	73 844	70 494	3 350	28 389	21 448	6 941	27 176 621
Professional associations	240	496	23 659	21 809	1 850	32 021	24 655	7 366	17 523 872
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties,  NGOs)	261	477	24 388	23 538	850	15 741	12 635	3 106	9 851 531
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	136	291	8 120	4 244	3 876	10 259	1 544	8 715	7 028 536

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.

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