The Asian Perspective

Like mushrooms, conference and meeting facilities have sprouted across the world and Asia. Why? Conferences and meetings are a function of a societal need to exchange ideas. More and improved telecommunications has changed the basis for meetings and conferences, i.e., personal development and/or development of the organisation. Statistics on the number of international meetings and conferences held world-wide show that Asian cities are becoming increasingly popular as a conference destination. However, because of the stagnating growth in the total number of international meetings held wo rid-wide, competition is increasing. Therefore, it becomes more important for conference destinations to compete on the basis of key success criteria and a better understanding of the clients' expectations. In this paper a framework is presented which is used to measure the competitive strength of international conference destinations. First, the relative importance of seven site selection criteria is determined, based on the perceptions of eighteen meeting planners. This shows that the attributes “facilities,” “accessibility,” and “service” are perceived as most important. Less important aspects are “price,” “image,” “attractions,” and “climate and environment.” Subsequently, respondents were asked to rate the performance of eleven Asian conference destinations on each of those attributes. Based on these scores, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong are perceived as the most attractive conference destinations. Finally, through the use of Importance-Performance analysis, an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of conference destinations is presented. Through a case study, practical implications for the improvement of the competitive position of four Asian destinations are given. One of the things it shows is that pricing is a cause for concern for planners in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the new airport presently under construction is a precondition to improve the city's accessibility and to build a competitive edge as a conference destination over its rival Singapore.