Corporate tourism refers to the travel of businessman and –women for the purposes of handling work-related issues. This is usually done on a local or national scale, where corporates need to travel to other towns and cities within their country to attend meetings or conferences. However, many (usually those in management positions) also have to travel internationally. The transport, accommodation and entertainment are funded by the employers of the traveller.
By their very nature, business-related trips seldom include time for sightseeing or shopping. Rather, such trips are characterised by their short duration and concentrated workload. The person or people will go to the destination with a very specific purpose, which has to be accomplished at risk of wasting his or her employer’s money if it is not successful.
The business travel market is divided into:
REGULAR BUSINESS TOURISTS – these are ones whose jobs necessarily involve travel as part of the position; including sales representatives, environmental specialists, and so on.
IRREGULAR BUSINESS TOURISTS – these ones travel to attend conferences, training seminars, teambuilding initiatives and the like. Although this may be a very regular occurrence for some, it is not the very nature of their job. Thus, they are referred to as being “irregular”.
Irregular business tourists have four main reasons for travelling. These are:
1. Meetings and conferences – they will travel to another city, town or country to attend an important gathering in which they will be networking, receiving information, informing others and reaching agreements. These include sales meetings, board meetings, and conferences on specific topics (e.g. bloodless surgery).
2. Incentives – many sales companies offer travel as a reward for reaching certain incentives and goals. This may be offered to individuals or departments. Incentive travel has been a very successful means of cultivating a close, cooperative working environment, reaching targets and making employees feel valued and motivated in the workplace. It also helps those within a certain department to get to know one another better, if the incentive included the entire group.
3. Conventions – such a gathering is a place at which a group of professionals exchange information and network. This is particularly interesting and exciting to those within the industry related to the convention, and they will travel long distances to be a part of the event. They will often take their spouses and families along. This gives the tourism industry the added opportunity to take advantage of leisure-related tourism as well as corporate tourism as the wives and children will, no doubt, want to enjoy the destination in a very different way.
4. Exhibitions – trade shows and exhibitions allow industry-related specialists to converge under one roof and showcase their products and services. Large tradeshows lure corporate travellers from all over the world, and provide them with the opportunity to network, gauge their competition, meet with potential partners and increase their customer base.
It is vital that event organisers and the tourism-related industries understand the needs and purposes of different travellers in order to allow them to make the best use of these golden opportunities.
Image Courtesy of Hope For The Sold
