The recession is proving to be a 'cloud with a silver lining’ for the Gulf’s meetings industry, said exhibitors at last week’s Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Show (GIBTM).
Alexandre Lolliot, manager of PCO Congress Solutions International said thanks to lower hotel rates and increased flexibility among suppliers, meetings business was on the up in 2010.
“The recession was a positive thing for the meetings industry,” said Lolliot. “It helped to stabilise the prices and the suppliers are much more flexible so it’s much easier to work as an association and conference organiser in the UAE today. Business is improving already – we can see the number of enquiries we are getting is much higher than last year.”
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Lolliot said that today buyers were shopping around for the best deals: “More and more it’s all coming down to price and affordability – people are very price sensitive. They are looking for added value, added services, higher quality of services for an equal amount of money they used to spend a year or two years ago"
Graham Barnett, exhibition director, GIBTM agreed that a downturn in leisure business had forced hoteliers into working with the meetings industry: “Hotels now are not in the driving seat – two years ago if you were a DMC or a PCO wanting a block booking for 600 rooms in September they’d tell you to get stuffed, but now the hoteliers are literally on the phone all the time saying I need 200 rooms for a DMC next week saying what can you do - what can you bring me? So the roles have completely reversed, that’s one of the fascinating things, the recession has been a silver lining to the cloud in the industry here.”
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