WELCOME TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

It really is about time that Australia’s tourism bureaus moved into the 21st Century.  Most are still producing printed and highly expensive meeting planners (planning guides, or whatever the current term is) when, according to most PCOs and Incentive Practitioners I know, they don’t even look at them.  If I want information that I need to refer to a tourism bureau about I look on the web!

The cost of design and pre-production alone for some of these weighty tomes runs into tens of thousands of dollars and the printing and distribution costs dwarf these.  And when it comes to carting them to trade shows and exhibitions...well, the heaviest thing I try to take away with me from a trade show is a DVD or, preferably, a USB drive - and I’ll even ask these to be mailed if possible (particularly from abroad).  It would be an interesting statistic to find out how many of these very expensive publications actually end up in the bin.

The Northern Territory Tourism Bureau took the brave step of not printing a planning guide last year and putting everything on-line.  The Wellington Tourism Bureau has taken the decision that this year’s will be the last they produce. When, oh when, will all the others follow suit?  How many trees will this save?

I can remember the days when shelves buckled under the weight of some of these publications and the modern PCO and Incentive Practitioner simply doesn’t require all this printed material when it is at their fingertips via the Web courtesy of a laptop or an iPhone, Blackberry or whatever which they can carry with them.  I certainly don’t take a planning guide with me anywhere.

And while on the subject of planning guides how many PCOs and Incentive Practitioners actually refer to a tourism bureau?  Again, from contacts I asked, it would appear very few.  The main problem is that many bureaus only represent the interests of their members.  This is all well and good and when a member is paying out some very big bucks to belong to a bureau I’m sure that’s the way they want it.  But not all suppliers, particularly to the incentive industry, actually belong to a bureau.  And with the Web as an important resource these days, why should they?

The majority of tourism bureaus concentrate on FITs (tourists) and the association market, the latter bringing in much needed funds in fairly substantial quantities.  According to surveys carried out by both the Melbourne and Sydney bureaus several years ago, association conference delegates spend something like five times what the average tourist will spend whilst in their cities.  However, the average incentive reward participant will surpass even these figures coming in at something like seven times the average FIT spend.  And yet the bureaus largely do not service the incentive market.

Ask a bureau who they invite on their famils and they’ll tell you travel agents and PCOs; incentive practitioners get invited usually by virtue of their being a PCO as well.  The famils are focused on what a meeting manager is likely to need and not on what an incentive practitioner is looking for to really wow its clients.  Of course, the wow factor is not limited to incentives but there is an education process to go through for suppliers to understand how they have to refocus their products and the service they provide when it comes to this very special (and very particular) market.

Because famils try to be all things to all people participants are usually required to trudge endlessly through hotels’ meeting facilities, convention centres and other meeting-related elements.  Participants are, of course, treated well but not as though they were on an incentive reward trip.  I’m pleased to say that things seem to be changing in this regard.

Wellington Tourism Bureau, for one, has set up a working group to concentrate specifically on the incentive market as well as providing seminars to educate its members on just how to deal with the specific needs of incentive practitioners and their clients.  Venues, too, are re-examining what they provide to meet the needs of an incentive reward and how they interact with incentive companies.

Wellington may be an unknown quantity to many incentive practitioners but it’s a great little city with facilities and venues that certainly can deliver the wow factor again and again.  And they’re willing to learn!

Peter Gray is the Managing Partner of Motivating People
E peter.gray@motivatingpeople.net
W www.motivatingpeople.net