http://www.nwda.co.uk/docs/Business%20Tourism%20Top%20Line%20-%20IG%20Nov%2008 by Northwest Regional Development Agency

NWDA Business Tourism Survey Results

November 2008 Ben Moxon

Incidence of business trips • 26.6m people work 16+ hours per week in GB • 13% of these individuals have made a business tourism trip to or within the Northwest in the past 6 months • Incidence is naturally higher the closer the respondent lives to the Northwest • Gtr Manchester accounts for twice the incidence of all the other sub regions

Volume of business tourism trips • 25.6m business tourism trips made to the Northwest annually • 7.6 million involve an overnight stay • WTO business tourism definition reduces the volume by approximately 50%

Value of business tourism • Annual value of business tourism = £2.1bn • Accommodation accounts for half of all pre travel spend • On trip, travel, accommodation and food and drink account are main expenditures •

•

Accommodation only relevant for 30% of business trips Personal discretionary spend accounts for 15% of total

Purpose of trips

• Meetings account for a third of all business trips to the Northwest • Contract work includes skilled trades and construction work

Occupation of business travellers • The three most skilled occupation classes account for majority of business trips

Elementary Occupations

Process, Plant And Machine Operatives

Sales And Customer Service Occupations

Personal Service Occupations

• Skilled trades also account for significant volume

Skilled Trades Occupations

Administrative And Secretarial Occupations Associate Professional And Technical Occupations Professional Occupations

Volume of trips (000's)

,0 7

,0 6

,0 5

,0 4

,0 3

,0 2

,0 1

Managers And Senior Officials

Where these trips originate from • 9m trips from within the NW

10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000

Cumbria

Gtr Manchester

Merseyside

Cheshire

Lancashire

• London’s importance and transport links stimulate 3m trips annually

m lu o 's)V 0 ( eftrip

4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 -

• Neighbouring regions also account for c3m trips each

NWDA Business Tourism Workshop

November 2008 Ben Moxon

ÂŠ 2008 Arkenford Ltd

Occupations most likely to do certain purposes

All trips Meeting Contract work Training Conference Sales call Work placement Seminar Trade fair/ exhibition Company outing Sabbatical

All respondents 25,642 32% 17% 9% 7% 5% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1%

Managers And Senior Officials 6,430 50% 11% 8% 8% 3% 1% 5% 5% 2% 0%

Associate Professional Administrative Personal Professional And Technical And Secretarial Skilled Trades Service Occupations Occupations Occupations Occupations Occupations 4,285 3,963 1,396 3,148 1,364 37% 32% 27% 14% 28% 9% 14% 13% 39% 6% 11% 12% 17% 6% 5% 10% 9% 13% 2% 7% 5% 7% 2% 2% 4% 6% 4% 0% 7% 10% 6% 3% 6% 1% 1% 2% 1% 3% 3% 4% 1% 1% 2% 2% 5% 1% 0% 1% 1% 0%

Sales And Customer Service Occupations 1,488 35% 0% 6% 5% 33% 1% 0% 2% 3% 1%

Process, Plant And Machine Operatives 1,812 7% 48% 5% 0% 0% 16% 0% 0% 1% 0%

Elementary Occupations 1,757 11% 19% 8% 9% 2% 11% 4% 0% 0% 1%

Duration of business trip by origin region • 70% of NW business trips involve no overnight stay • More local respondent is the more likely the trip will be a day trip • Cumbria has highest propensity of overnight business trips – 41% Cumbria c.f. 30% NW

Trips extended for leisure Business trips

Volume Extended for leisure

All trips of 1 night or more

7.7m

33%

Cumbria for 1 night or more

1.2m

41%

Gtr Man for 1 night or more

2.6m

32%

Cheshire for 1 night or more

1.0m

40%

Merseyside for 1 night or more

1.6m

25%

Lancashire for 1 1.3m night or more

29%

• Cumbria is the sub region with the highest propensity of trips extended for leisure – Appeal of the Lake District?

• Extensions for leisure more likely to occur if purpose of trip is a seminar, trade fair/ exhibition or a sabbatical

Day of week for business trip 0% Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

10%

15%

20%

25%

• Earlier in the week is favoured for NW business trips • Wednesday is the preferred day – Splits the working week

Discretionary destination choice % of trips discretionary

• Destination for majority of business trips not decided by person attending – Someone else decides – Where the work is – Visiting clients/ suppliers office

• If destination is chosen then more likely to be Cumbria

15% 17% 15% 27% 22%

18%

Discretionary destination choice • Sales calls would appear to be discretionary in terms of the destination choice – More likely respondent has chosen to target a company in that area so it is less likely to be the destination influencing the choice

Work placement 5% Contract work

12%

Sabbatical

41%

Company outing

12%

Trade fair/ exhibition

13%

Training

11%

Sales call

48%

Conference

21%

Seminar

14%

Meeting

16%

All NW trips

18% 0%

20%

40%

Yes I chose

60% No

80%

100%

Group size and composition Any child in group Sabbatical

49%

Company outing

Stay trip

Any non business adult in group (no kids)

51%

67%

3% 9%

5+ business people

4 business people

33%

81%

20%

3 business people

2 business people Cumbria

78%

22%

15%

1 business person

58% 0

Female

83%

All respondents

17%

88%

20%

Business people only

40%

12%

60%

80%

100%

Non business people in party

% of trips

• 2.8 is average group size • 58% of trips conducted alone • 88% are conducted with business people only

Modes of transport used for business trip to NW •

Car is most popular from all regions except London – Train provides quickest access to NW

•

Train also features from Yorkshire and the more peripheral regions 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% South East

London

South West

North East

North Yorkshire West East West Midlands Midlands

Private/ company car/ van

Train

Hire car/ van

East Flying

Scotland Wales

Non car users transport booking 0%

10%

Internet with transport provider 11%

Telephone with transport provider

Face to face (at station, with driver, on the day) Company travel department Unsure/ did not book it personally

30% 24%

Internet through an agent/ third party

Telephone through an agent/ third party

20%

• Booking direct via internet as popular as going through company travel department

• 1 in 5 did not book their transport personally

– Tends to be lower occupation classes

10%

24%

22%

Accommodation 0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

• 30% of business trips to NW involve an overnight stay

All staying trips

Cheshire

• Hotels are the accommodation of choice

Cumbria

• Guest house/ B&B and VFR account for 11% each

Gtr Manchester

Lancashire

• Guest house/ B&B more popular in Cumbria and Lancashire

Merseyside

Hotel

Guest house/ B&B

Stayed with friends or relatives

Residential conference centre

Apartment

Other

– Factor of what is available rather than pure choice

Accommodation users • More likely to book accommodation directly with the provider – Internet favoured over telephone

• Almost a quarter did not book their accommodation personally

10% 20% 30% 40%

Internet with accommodation provider

33%

Internet through an agent/ third party

Telephone with accommodation provider Telephone through an agent/ third party Face to face (on the day) Company travel department Unsure/ did not book it personally

13%

18%

23%

Value of business tourism • Annual value of business tourism = £2.1bn • Some elements may not provide spend specifically to NW – E.g. transport to NW

Pre booked business items Pre booked leisure items Business spend on trip Host/ other company spend on trip Personal spend on trip Total

£000's £918,010 £123,944 £828,897 £78,362 £161,039 £2,110,253

Incidence of spending Transport Accomodation Events Training Total spend on pre-booked business items

Incidence 18% 17% 5% 5% 33%

Avg per spender per trip £ 49.22 £ 105.05 £ 66.91 £ 123.02 £ 108.12

•

• Transport Accomodation Events Attractions Total pre-booked spend on leisure items

•

Higher % spend out of own pocket when compared to host company spend ... ... But host companies in NW are more generous!

Avg per spender per trip Incidence 3% £ 41.28 4% £ 82.02 1% £ 23.85 1% £ 25.75 7% £ 64.61

Accomodation Event expenditure Entertaining, food and drink Souvenirs Shopping Travelling in the area Travel to the destination Total spend

•

A third of all business trips to NW consisted of some form of pre book spend Of course, a % won’t spend anything at all On the trip, visitors more likely to spend on food & drink and transport

Company paid (on expenses) Avg spend per spender per Incidence trip 8% £ 97.01 6% £ 69.59 22% £ 36.73 3% £ 21.52 3% £ 40.51 6% £ 18.94 23% £ 38.93 36% £ 88.95

Host/ other company paid Personal expenditure Avg spend per Avg spend per spender per spender per Incidence trip Incidence trip 1% £ 57.90 2% £ 39.64 1% £ 37.66 1% £ 15.02 3% £ 43.06 9% £ 19.64 0% £ 18.49 3% £ 13.77 0% £ 47.77 5% £ 28.14 0% £ 7.40 2% £ 10.83 1% £ 38.94 5% £ 25.50 5% £ 64.98 16% £ 38.45

Discussion points • How to get more people to stay / extend trip – How to work with local businesses – How to get in contact with business travellers directly – How do we entice them / incentivise longer stays?

• How to get more people to return as a leisure visitor

For more information please contact: Crawford Christie at Arkenford Ltd Mount Manor House 16 The Mount Guildford Surrey GU2 4HS O1483 510 310 www.arkenford.co.uk

ÂŠ 2008 Arkenford Ltd

Definitions • Business trip is outside the respondents usual environment (i.e. where they live, usually work, eat out and shop for groceries) • The wage or salary of the respondent is not paid by the company of person they are visiting in the Northwest. • If the person has made more than 6 trips to that specific destination over the 6 month period and they are not part of one off jobs, projects or assignments then they will be excluded as this would be classed as a regular trip. • The frequency of trips to the Northwest for unusual business trips has to be less than 26 trips in the past 6 months. This would equate to 2 or fewer trips per week. Anything more than this would be classed as frequent.