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 OCTOBER, 2009		NUMBER: 4.4.8/8.
				OBLIGED TO NOTIFY DATA SOURCE

CONGRESSES AND OTHER BUSINESS MEETINGS, AUGUST 2009

In August 2009, the number of business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 129. There were 53 meetings with overnight stays and 76 without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 278. Each meeting was held 2 days on the average. The number of participants at all meetings was 7 239, out of which the number of domestic participants was5 976 (83%) and the number of foreign ones was 1 263 (17%).

According to professional organisers, the most meetings, 70 of them (54%), were organised by business entities.

In August 2009, the turnover of 5 347 490 kuna was generated from business meetings. Out of the total turnover, 4 664 432 kuna (87%) was generated from meetings with overnight stays and 683 058 kuna (13%) from meetings without overnight stays.

In the period from January to August 2009, there were 2 957 business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia. Out of this number, there were 1 371 (46%) meetings with overnight stays and 1 586 (54%) without them. The total number of days at business meetings was 5 766. Business meetings were attended by 222 476 participants, out of which 197 681 (89%) domestic and 24 795 (11%) foreign ones.

In the period from January to August 2009, the total turnover generated from all business meetings held in the Republic of Croatia was 127 679 011 kuna. Out of this sum, 109 428 637 kuna (86%) were generated from meetings with overnight stays and
18 250 374 kuna (14%) from meetings without them.

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

	Business entities	Halls	Seats
Total	46	226	18 070
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	42	209	15 782
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	4	17	2 288

2.   BUSINESS MEETINGS HELD IN PERIOD FROM JANUARY – AUGUST 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
VIII. 2009.
Total	129	278	7 239	5 442	1 797	6 281	5 347 490
Meetings with overnights	53	153	2 291	494	1 797	6 281	4 664 432
Meetings without overnights	76	125	4 948	4 948	-	-	683 058
I. – VIII. 2009.
Total	2 957	5 766	222 476	147 329	75 147	182 993	127 679 011
Meetings with overnights	1 371	3 559	98 297	23 150	75 147	182 993	109 428 637
Meetings without overnights	1 586	2 207	124 179	124 179	-	-	18 250 374

3.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE OF FACILITY IN WHICH BUSINESS MEETINGS WERE HELD, AUGUST 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	129	278	7 239	5 976	1 263	6 281	2 151	4 130	5 347 490
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	123	254	6 928	5 723	1 205	6 281	2 151	4 130	5 303 262
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	6	24	311	253	58	-	-	-	44 228

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

	Business meetings	Number of days at meeting	Participants			Noćenja Night overstays			Turnover generated by meeting,  kuna, incl. VAT
			Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total	By domestic  participants	By foreign participants
Total	2 957	5 766	222 476	197 681	24 795	182 993	119 908	63 085	127 679 011
Hotels and similar accommodation facilities	2 744	5 450	187 796	163 678	24 118	182 993	119 908	63 085	126 361 611
Universities, fair, cultural institutions and other types of facilities in which business meetings are held	213	316	34 680	34 003	677	-	-	-	1 317 400

5.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPE, AUGUST 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	129	278	7 239	5 976	1 263	6 281	2 151	4 130	5 347 490
Corporate/business meeting	32	52	1 256	1 200	56	171	151	20	250 674
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	71	173	4 603	3 788	815	4 780	1 957	2 823	3 344 265
Public conference/lecture	6	7	295	260	35	35	-	35	33 056
Incentive arrangement	5	18	326	-	326	1 165	-	1 165	1 605 204
Team building	2	5	93	88	5	43	38	5	12 508
Other	13	23	666	640	26	87	5	82	101 783

6.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY TYPES, JANUARY – AUGUST 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	2 957	5 766	222 476	197 681	24 795	182 993	119 908	63 085	127 679 011
Corporate/business meeting	798	1 229	37 225	33 986	3 239	11 257	5 838	5 419	16 685 538
Congress (forum, course of lectures, seminar, symposium)	1 559	3 425	127 479	112 660	14 819	137 303	93 024	44 279	87 098 324
Public conference/lecture	149	250	15 934	14 363	1 571	6 656	4 099	2 557	7 888 615
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	55	146	3 581	1 767	1 814	7 361	2 739	4 622	5 806 913
Team building	83	207	6 404	5 757	647	13 963	12 562	1 401	4 789 146
Other	249	418	19 679	17 144	2 535	5 551	1 068	4 483	4 667 230

7. BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, AUGUST 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	129	278	7 239	5 976	1 263	6 281	2 151	4 130	5 347 490
International organisations	1	2	35	-	35	35	-	35	14 685
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	5	10	219	219	-	55	55	-	38 589
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	3	21	106	48	58	-	-	-	45 654
Travel agencies	11	32	638	134	504	1 535	38	1 497	2 204 527
Business entities (enterprises)	70	107	3 886	3 876	10	505	489	16	934 231
Professional associations	13	33	1 115	1 111	4	1 581	1 563	18	475 193
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties, NGOs)	11	13	443	443	-	3	3	-	19 124
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	15	60	797	145	652	2 567	3	2 564	1 615 487

8.   BUSINESS MEETINGS, BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANISER, JANUARY – AUGUST 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	2 957	5 766	222 476	197 681	24 795	182 993	119 908	63 085	127 679 011
International organisations	76	215	4 876	3 007	1 869	6 649	1 539	5 110	5 200 825
Croatian government, bodies of state and local government and self-government	163	324	13 483	12 725	758	13 961	11 936	2 025	8 012 578
Universities, polytechnics, academies, institutes	153	391	17 162	15 867	1 295	12 923	9 964	2 959	7 061 002
Travel agencies	214	494	18 698	14 487	4 211	32 443	20 992	11 451	22 335 251
Business entities (enterprises)	1 479	2 494	91 899	87 050	4 849	35 974	26 694	9 280	35 034 471
Professional associations	320	677	32 061	29 472	2 589	43 157	33 255	9 902	24 125 900
Other (banks, insurance agencies, political parties,  NGOs)	337	604	29 731	28 754	977	16 654	13 346	3 308	10 886 145
Foreign enterprises, institutions, organisations	215	567	14 566	6 319	8 247	21 232	2 182	19 050	15 022 839

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