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, 27 AUGUST, 2009		NUMBER: 4.4.8/6.
				OBLIGED TO NOTIFY DATA SOURCE

CONGRESSES AND OTHER BUSINESS MEETINGS, JUNE 2009

In June 2009, the number of business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 414. There were 219 meetings with overnight stays and 195 without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 896. Each meeting was held 2 days on the average. The number of participants at all meetings was 29 792, out of which the number of domestic participants was 23 100 (78%) and the number of foreign ones was 6 692 (22%).

According to professional organisers, the most meetings, 182 of them (44%), were organised by business entities.

In June 2009, the turnover of 22 522 437 kuna was generated from business meetings. Out of the total turnover, 20 251 044 kuna (90%) was generated from meetings with overnight stays and 2 271 393 kuna (10%) from meetings without overnight stays.

In the period from January to June 2009, there were 2 586 business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia. Out of this number, there were 1 213 (47%) meetings with overnight stays and 1 373 (53%) without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 5 006. Business meetings were attended by 202 982 participants, out of which 182 164 (90%) domestic and 20 818 (10%) foreign ones.

In the period from January to June 2009, the total turnover generated from all business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 112 550 926 kuna. Out of this sum, 96 366 169 kuna (86%) were generated from meetings with overnight stays and 16 184 757 kuna (14%) from meetings without them.

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

	Business entities	Halls	Seats
Total	90	387	41 914
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	86	353	28 246
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	4	34	13 668

2.   BUSINESS MEETINGS HELD IN PERIOD FROM JANUARY – JUNE 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
VI. 2009.
Total	414	896	29 792	16 509	13 283	31 084	22 522 437
Meetings with overnights	219	625	16 684	3 401	13 283	31 084	20 251 044
Meetings without overnights	195	271	13 108	13 108	-	-	2 271 393
I. – VI. 2009.
Total	2 586	5 006	202 982	133 196	69 786	168 929	112 550 926
Meetings with overnights	1 213	3 124	91 279	21 493	69 786	168 929	96 366 169
Meetings without overnights	1 373	1 882	111 703	111 703	-	-	16 184 757

3.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, JUNE 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	414	896	29 792	23 100	6 692	31 084	16 190	14 894	22 522 437
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	398	871	26 815	20 211	6 604	31 084	16 190	14 894	22 365 508
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	16	25	2 977	2 889	88	-	-	-	156 929

4.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, JANUARY – JUNE 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	2 586	5 006	202 982	182 164	20 818	168 929	115 263	53 666	112 550 926
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	2 399	4 756	170 116	149 754	20 362	168 929	115 263	53 666	111 346 904
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	187	250	32 866	32 410	456	-	-	-	1 204 022

5.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE, JUNE 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	414	896	29 792	23 100	6 692	31 084	16 190	14 894	22 522 437
Corporate/business meeting	106	158	4 666	4 262	404	1 262	390	872	2 541 553
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	225	546	16 448	13 242	3 206	22 168	14 334	7 834	15 177 233
Public conference/lecture	19	30	2 373	1 845	528	1 356	419	937	1 354 818
Governmental conferences	4	13	404	271	133	563	319	244	280 700
General assembly	7	7	1 626	1 626	-	-	-	-	12 513
Convention	1	5	27	2	25	84	4	80	52 933
Incentive arrangement	13	43	565	172	393	1 071	274	797	676 554
Team building	13	31	352	282	70	345	214	131	254 572
Other	26	63	3 331	1 398	1 933	4 235	236	3 999	2 171 561

6.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPES, JANUARY – JUNE 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	2 586	5 006	202 982	182 164	20 818	168 929	115 263	53 666	112 550 926
Corporate/business meeting	694	1 067	33 123	30 440	2 683	10 076	5 339	4 737	14 788 146
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	1 381	3 017	117 332	104 508	12 824	128 273	89 456	38 817	78 335 612
Public conference/lecture	124	188	14 655	13 648	1 007	5 687	4 073	1 614	6 473 855
Governmental conferences	9	18	1 019	886	133	563	319	244	320 691
General assembly	47	57	7 892	7 892	-	252	252	-	188 977
Convention	5	12	2 709	2 684	25	84	4	80	184 922
Incentive arrangement	38	96	2 576	1 541	1 035	4 765	2 368	2 397	3 234 388
Team building	78	197	6 203	5 571	632	13 791	12 415	1 376	4 726 758
Other	210	354	17 473	14 994	2 479	5 438	1 037	4 401	4 297 577

7.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JUNE 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	414	896	29 792	23 100	6 692	31 084	16 190	14 894	22 522 437
International organisations	12	31	1 040	341	699	1 016	109	907	1 232 016
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	22	44	1 339	1 178	161	938	640	298	776 727
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	23	73	1 773	1 396	377	2 394	1 211	1 183	1 413 315
Travel agencies	32	69	2 132	1 489	643	3 509	2 265	1 244	2 036 438
Business entities (enterprises)	182	311	9 281	8 570	711	5 279	4 117	1 162	4 606 714
Professional associations	55	132	6 732	5 997	735	9 266	6 748	2 518	5 947 357
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties, NGOs)	43	80	2 830	2 818	12	502	476	26	725 977
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	45	156	4 665	1 311	3 354	8 180	624	7 556	5 783 893

8.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JANUARY – JUNE 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	2 586	5 006	202 982	182 164	20 818	168 929	115 263	53 666	112 550 926
International organisations	65	179	4 347	2 741	1 606	5 908	1 516	4 392	4 593 556
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	144	289	12 213	11 582	631	13 319	11 588	1 731	6 914 658
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	144	344	16 590	15 443	1 147	12 458	9 724	2 734	6 750 688
Travel agencies	173	382	16 313	13 617	2 696	27 607	20 188	7 419	15 647 523
Business entities (enterprises)	1 280	2 180	83 125	79 064	4 061	33 668	25 565	8 103	31 783 335
Professional associations	295	628	30 391	27 806	2 585	41 287	31 403	9 884	23 471 229
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties,  NGOs)	304	557	27 218	26 356	862	16 243	13 111	3 132	10 577 508
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	181	447	12 785	5 555	7 230	18 439	2 168	16 271	12 812 429

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