Congress Tourism

Congress tourism is a growing MICE market segment. Congress tourism takes up to 30% of the hotel reservation around the world, but only 5-7% in Ukraine. Some of the most popular congress places have always been Austria, Check republic and Cyprus.

As the specialists note, the major bulk of congress-conference clients are financial, computer, pharmaceutical and insurance companies. The average duration of the event is from two to four days. The typical service includes charter flights to and from the location and accommodation in best hotels of major resort cities.

Popular travel destinations are gradually becoming popular congress destinations as well. Such countries as Turkey, Spain and Greece are in high demand during low season when 4-5 star hotels are not packed and offer accommodation discounts.

Individual congress tourism differs from exhibition tourism because it doesn't require standard promotion and previous advertisement. Usually individuals come to a travel agency having received the invitations personally in need of standard travel package including visas, air tickets, transfers and accommodation.

Questions:

1. What are the popular congress places?

2. How many congresses are held annually in different locations all over the world?

3. What are the major congress-conference clients?

4. What countries are in high demand during low season and why?

5. Which way does the individual congress tourism differ from exhibition tourism?

6. Summarize the text.

Passenger care

Part I

The best ideas in business are quite often the most obvious. For example, business travellers passing through Europe's airports have constantly bemoaned the fact that however much their ticket cost, or however much they were pampered in-flight the real hold-ups always came when passing through passport control and security, or waiting in duty free. Even at the busiest times of the day, it now takes business passengers only a minute or two to pass through the barriers to go airside. That last-minute report to finish, or taking just one more phone call, has spelt disaster for many business travellers suddenly finding themselves at passport control behind a plane-load of holidaymakers who are quite happy to take their time – after all they are going on holiday. Many airlines offer attractive incentives such as free limousine and helicopter transfers, advance seat reservations and priority baggage handling. However, it is a simple fact that no other airport appeared to have tackled the problem successfully until London Gatwick became the first airport in the UK or Europe to implement a “red carpet“priority system especially for First and Business Class travellers.