FEATURE
MICE MARKET
Jury ’ s Inn – Brighton Seafront
itself and the infrastructure and transport that are necessary . Incentives to airlines and rail networks , for instance - especially to and from airports for cities such as Leeds and Belfast , which have no rail links from the airport to their city centres .
HILTON AS A MARKET LEADER One hotel chain that is doing particularly well in the MICE market , perhaps unsurprisingly , is hospitality giant Hilton , which on Cvent ’ s list boasted six properties . The reason ? According to Anthony Worrall , senior regional director of F & B UK & ROI at Hilton , it ’ s a topto-bottom emphasis the company puts on attracting that market .
“ MICE business is a key segment for us , with the industry experiencing tremendous growth at the moment ,” explains Worrall . “ Our hotels are well equipped to cope with the rising demand , and we regularly conduct in-depth customer research in the MICE space so as to continuously improve the customer experience .
“ Firstly , our hotels are situated in convenient locations , contributing to the fact that we are the number one brand of choice for meetings in the UK . Our customers trust us , and know that by booking with Hilton , their meeting is in great hands with our experienced team members . Our extensive research found that meetings bookers are also looking for inspiring meetings and events , so we took this feedback on board and have created a menu of enriching experiences available at each of our hotels .”
of venue , the competitive gap between independent venues and well-known hotel chains has narrowed considerably , according to an additional study by Cvent . The ‘ 2018 Global Planner Sourcing Report ’ found a greater desire to deliver more unique onsite experiences for event attendees . The study reported that business planners are actively looking at a wider variety of venues to host their events with a quarter of UK planners ( 25 %) booking independent hotels compared with just under a third ( 29 %) opting to book large chain hotels .
James Bland , director for hotels and hospitality at independent research consultancy BDRC , also agrees that big name chains do not necessarily have a a complete stranglehold over the market . “ Brand is less important for businesses booking meeting spaces , if a smaller independent hotel is the best facility for the job then it will get the booking . It does not mean [ brand ] is unimportant , but if there is good quality meeting space unbranded then that is not a barrier . Good quality independent products should always do well if they have the route to market .”
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL On a national level the market can and should reach the level that will enable the UK to compete on a global stage , believes Carruthers . “ The Fattal Group with
Jury ’ s Inn – Brighton Seafront
Leonardo , which we are a part of , have a significant foothold in Germany and there is a significant difference between the city congress and events business that they enjoy as a percentage of their overall room segmentation than we do in the UK . “ I think it was quite a surprise to them because they are use to cities like Munich , Hamburg and Berlin that have great convention centres and are well established on the international stage . We could be there with those cities and rest of Europe . If you look at our capacity compared to France and then you look at the size of our economy or contribution on a GDP level they are more than double the size of the UK in terms of meeting space .
“ I see no reason why we couldn ’ t be at that level and to show some ambition in some of the cities outside of London and follow the example set in Liverpool . If that could just be replicated in other key cities in the UK - that is the goal .”
POTENTIAL FOR INDEPENDENTS TO CHALLENGE IN THE MARKET Whilst large chain hotels continue to top the league as UK event planners ’ first choice
24 www . hotelowner . co . uk August 2018