While this article from Association Meetings does a great job of explaining the trials and tribulations of conventions and visitors bureaus, it does focus only on what's going on in the U.S.
A good complement to it is this article from travelwirenews, which talks about a benchmarking survey done for both U.S. and non-U.S. bureaus:
- “Most existing CVB surveys mainly reflect the situation in North America, which has the largest numbers of bureaux,” Dr. Koutoulas said. “There are fundamental differences between continents, especially in regard to financing CVB operations. The American concept of local tourism taxes, for instance, which is the major source of income for US-based bureaux, has yet to be implemented in other parts of the world.”
- The profile of the average CVB is, according to the findings of the benchmark survey, as follows:
The average CVB represents a destination at the local level, i.e. an urban centre or a resort area. It is a co-operative organisation either fully controlled by its public-sector shareholders or run as a public-private partnership.
The CVB targets both the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) and the leisure travel markets through its marketing activities. Individual tourist businesses can become members of the CVB by paying membership dues. Its annual budget is approximately 6 million Euros.
56.4% of its funding originates from the public sector, with a further 12.1% being direct income from a dedicated tax. Dues paid by member businesses contribute another 14.9% to its budget. Offering its services to businesses and consumers secures the CVB 11.7% and 3.4% of its income, respectively.
52.9% of the CVB’s budget goes towards its marketing activities and 30.2% covers wages and other personnel-related costs.
Its staff comprises 46 employees. The budget corresponding to each employee exceeds 150,000 Euros.
It is interesting to note that non-US bureaux receive less funding from public sources than their American counterparts (67.5% of total income for non-US vs. 84% for US-based bureaux). The share of private sources is twice as high in the case of non-US bureaux compared with US-based CVBs, with 32.5% vs. 16% of total income, respectively.
Interesting stuff, isn't it?
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