The Great Halls of China? Meeting Planners’ Perceptions of Beijing as an International Convention Destination

Abstract

This research focused on meeting planners' perceptions about selecting Beijing as an international convention destination. Twentythree convention destination site selection criteria organized into five categories were identified. It was found that, with respect to Beijing, the importance of site selection criteria has changed since the late 1990s, with meeting planners now attaching more weight to the quality of convention services, quality of convention planning assistance, and city image. The meeting planners who had previously held international conventions in Beijing attached greater importance to research and development cooperation opportunities and choice of accommodations than those who had not. They rated Beijing's performance lower on the convenience of the application process (required by Chinese governments) and government support. It was concluded that Beijing needs to improve most on the quality of convention services and convention planning assistance, and by relaxing government policies related to the holding of international conventions.

Modifying the conceptual model of site selection in the organisation of association conferences

“…As there is limited scholarly literature on subvention, the results of these interviews would seem to contradict Park et al (2014) assertion that subvention is not discussed or promoted, as interviewees spoke freely and at length on the topic. Moreover, the study data would seem to corroborate industry reports on the wide use of subvention, particularly in emerging destinations.…”

“…The significant economic impact of hosting international association conferences has drawn the attention of a number of governments worldwide in recent years and China, in particular, has become a key player in the industry following significant backing of a bid to compete with traditional destinations, which was launched by the Chinese government at the end of the twentieth century (Park et al, 2014). Additionally there have been substantial investments in infrastructure to support conferences in South Africa, Thailand and Dubai (Quinn, 2013) and there is mounting competition from some of Asia's strongest economies including Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore (Park et al, 2014). The USA continues not only to lead the sector in terms of the number of international meetings and events taking place but also in terms of investment in infrastructure as over 100 purpose built convention centres were built in the 1970s and 1980s (Spiller, 2002) and support for the events industry has remained consistent from both state and federal offices.…”

“…The quality and capacity of the main conference venue is an extremely important variable (Choi & Boger, 2002;Crouch & Louviere 2004) as is the importance of being able to "sell" the destination to delegates (Dipietro et al, 2008;Jiang et al, 2016;Rompf, Breiter, & Severt, 2008).The specific facilities in the destination are significant and include the proximity of the venues to each other as well as the overall accessibility of the location (Crouch & Louviere, 2004;Kang et al, 2005;Nelson & Rys, 2000). The safety and security of the destination is naturally important (Choi & Boger, 2002;Nelson & Rys, 2000), as is the political stability of the destination (McCartney, 2014;Park et al, 2014). All of this confirms the complex process of site selection and the intricacies of being an effective meeting planner.…”

“…Association conferences, held by mostly not for profit organisations, are the largest in terms of length and delegate numbers and as many associations have an international membership, their events are peripatetic (Nolan, 2020). In recent years, competition to host conferences has intensified (Park, Wu, Shen, Morrison, & Kong, 2014) and there are a growing number of destination management organisations (DMOs) specifically targeting international association conferences. Consequently destinations are finding it increasingly challenging to attract the attention of meeting planners (Chiappa, 2012) yet despite this, there has been limited research to date exploring the role of the DMO in the process of destination, or site, selection.…”

Business tourism under apartheid: The historical development of South Africa’s conference industry

“…The decision-making processes, satisfaction and the destination images of association meeting planners as well as of MICE tourists are vibrant research themes (Oppermann, 1996a(Oppermann, , 1996bOppermann & Chon, 1997;Oppermann, 1998;Go & Govers, 1999;Weber, 2001;Weber & Chon, 2002;Hankinson, 2005;Casanova et al, 2006;Ladkin, 2006;Monge & Brandimarte, 2011;Chiang et al 2012aChiang et al , 2012bChiu & Ananzeh, 2012;Elston & Draper 2012;Fenich et al, 2014;Kuznetsova & Silcheva, 2014;Park et al, 2014). Often the results of such research, including the application of choice modelling exercises, are used to strengthen the competitive positioning and branding of individual destinations for MICE tourism (Oppermann, 1996a;Weber & Ladkin, 2003;Hankinson, 2005).…”