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, 29 SEPTEMBER, 2009		NUMBER: 4.4.8/7.
				OBLIGED TO NOTIFY DATA SOURCE

CONGRESSES AND OTHER BUSINESS MEETINGS, JULY 2009

In July 2009, the number of business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 242. There were 105 meetings with overnight stays and 137 without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 482. Each meeting was held 2 days on the average. The number of participants at all meetings was 12 255, out of which the number of domestic participants was 9 541 (78%) and the number of foreign ones was 2 714 (22%).

According to professional organisers, the most meetings, 129 of them (53%), were organised by business entities.

In July 2009, the turnover of 9 780 595 kuna was generated from business meetings. Out of the total turnover, 8 398 036 kuna (86%) was generated from meetings with overnight stays and 1 382 559 kuna (14%) from meetings without overnight stays.

In the period from January to July 2009, there were 2 828 business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia. Out of this number, there were 1 318 (47%) meetings with overnight stays and 1 510 (53%) without them. The total number of days at business meetings was
5 488. Business meetings were attended by 215 237 participants, out of which 191 705 (89%) domestic and 23 532 (11%) foreign ones.

In the period from January to July 2009, the total turnover generated from all business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 122 331 521 kuna. Out of this sum, 104 764 205 kuna (86%) were generated from meetings with overnight stays and 17 567 316 kuna (14%) from meetings without them.

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

	Business entities	Halls	Seats
Total	51	255	30 455
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	47	222	16 917
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	4	33	13 538

2.    BUSINESS MEETINGS HELD IN PERIOD FROM JANUARY – JULY 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
VII. 2009.
Total	242	482	12 255	8 691	3 564	7 783	9 780 595
Meetings with overnights	105	282	4 727	1 163	3 564	7 783	8 398 036
Meetings without overnights	137	200	7 528	7 528	-	-	1 382 559
I. – VII. 2009.
Total	2 828	5 488	215 237	141 887	73 350	176 712	122 331 521
Meetings with overnights	1 318	3 406	96 006	22 656	73 350	176 712	104 764 205
Meetings without overnights	1 510	2 082	119 231	119 231	-	-	17 567 316

3.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, JULY 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	242	482	12 255	9 541	2 714	7 783	2 494	5 289	9 780 595
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	222	440	10 752	8 201	2 551	7 783	2 494	5 289	9 711 445
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	20	42	1 503	1 340	163	-	-	-	69 150

4.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, JANUARY – JULY 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	2 828	5 488	215 237	191 705	23 532	176 712	117 757	58 955	122 331 521
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	2 621	5 196	180 868	157 955	22 913	176 712	117 757	58 955	121 058 349
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	207	292	34 369	33 750	619	-	-	-	1 273 172

5.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE, JULY 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	242	482	12 255	9 541	2 714	7 783	2 494	5 289	9 780 595
Corporate/business meeting	72	110	2 846	2 346	500	1 010	348	662	1 646 718
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	107	235	5 544	4 364	1 180	4 250	1 611	2 639	5 418 447
Public conference/lecture	19	55	984	455	529	934	26	908	1 381 704
Governmental conferences	1	1	27	15	12	-	-	-	30 511
General assembly	1	1	500	500	-	-	-	-	3 584
Convention	1	2	27	27	-	3	3	-	14 560
Incentive arrangement	12	32	679	226	453	1 431	371	1 060	967 321
Team building	3	5	108	98	10	129	109	20	49 880
Other	26	41	1 540	1 510	30	26	26	-	267 870

6.    BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPES, JANUARY – JULY 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	2 828	5 488	215 237	191 705	23 532	176 712	117 757	58 955	122 331 521
Corporate/business meeting	766	1 177	35 969	32 786	3 183	11 086	5 687	5 399	16 434 864
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	1 488	3 252	122 876	108 872	14 004	132 523	91 067	41 456	83 754 059
Public conference/lecture	143	243	15 639	14 103	1 536	6 621	4 099	2 522	7 855 559
Governmental conferences	10	19	1 046	901	145	563	319	244	351 202
General assembly	48	58	8 392	8 392	-	252	252	-	192 561
Convention	6	14	2 736	2 711	25	87	7	80	199 482
Incentive arrangement	50	128	3 255	1 767	1 488	6 196	2 739	3 457	4 201 709
Team building	81	202	6 311	5 669	642	13 920	12 524	1 396	4 776 638
Other	236	395	19 013	16 504	2 509	5 464	1 063	4 401	4 565 447

7.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JULY 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	242	482	12 255	9 541	2 714	7 783	2 494	5 289	9 780 595
International organisations	10	34	494	266	228	706	23	683	592 584
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	14	25	1 051	924	127	587	293	294	1 059 331
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	6	26	466	376	90	465	240	225	264 660
Travel agencies	30	80	1 747	736	1 011	3 301	766	2 535	4 483 201
Business entities (enterprises)	129	207	4 888	4 110	778	1 801	640	1 161	2 316 905
Professional associations	12	16	555	555	-	289	289	-	179 478
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties, NGOs)	22	34	2 070	1 955	115	408	232	176	289 513
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	19	60	984	619	365	226	11	215	594 923

8.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JANUARY – JULY 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	2 828	5 488	215 237	191 705	23 532	176 712	117 757	58 955	122 331 521
International organisations	75	213	4 841	3 007	1 834	6 614	1 539	5 075	5 186 140
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	158	314	13 264	12 506	758	13 906	11 881	2 025	7 973 989
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	150	370	17 056	15 819	1 237	12 923	9 964	2 959	7 015 348
Travel agencies	203	462	18 060	14 353	3 707	30 908	20 954	9 954	20 130 724
Business entities (enterprises)	1 409	2 387	88 013	83 174	4 839	35 469	26 205	9 264	34 100 240
Professional associations	307	644	30 946	28 361	2 585	41 576	31 692	9 884	23 650 707
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties,  NGOs)	326	591	29 288	28 311	977	16 651	13 343	3 308	10 867 021
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	200	507	13 769	6 174	7 595	18 665	2 179	16 486	13 407 352

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