Business travel
Business travel is one of the most stable working and highly profitable part of world tourism, and one of the youngest, too. Business travel or MICE (abbreviation from Meetings / Incentive / Conferences / Exhibitions) became a separate branch of tourism business in 1970s. First, business travel was considered by businessmen only as opportunities to have a good rest at the expense of the government or the company you work for. The situation changed greatly after 1998 when the number of entertaining trips has lowered and at the same time the number of corporate events has grown. MICE development in Russia is highly dynamic as well as in the rest of the world, and according to the prospects the profitability of this branch of tourism will grow up to $2 billion a year by 2020.
The demand structure of MICE today is: 75 % is individual business travel, intensive trips, conferences and exhibitions are 10-13 % each. The figures are approximate, of course; exhibitions and conferences are
Meetings
Most travel agencies offer businessmen going to a conference, exhibition or negotiations only standard package of visa support, air tickets, accommodation and transfers. As a result those businessmen, who want their trips to be efficient, prefer dealing with specialized travel agencies working in the sphere of MICE tourism. Such travel agencies basically deal with corporate clients. Agencies can provide the corporate client with full package of business and travel services including dozens of meetings, visits to enterprises and professional exhibitions.
The biggest American travel agencies working in the sphere of MICE tourism are American Express Travel Services, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, BTI.
The demand on business travel is growing rapiudly. Numerous workshops, professional exhibitions, journals and websites devoted to MICE support this growth.
Incentive
Incentive tourism means travels financed by the company to give an incentive to employees as the appraisal
Incentive tours are becoming more diverse, both in the choice of the countries and in the tour programs. Some intensive tours are aimed at business activities or interests of the tourists, i. e. historical or wine tours; there are also separate “mass” tours for ordinary employees and VIP programs for senior management. The latter prefer adventure tourism or even extreme tourism such as auto rallies or balloon flying.
Recently senior management of many companies prefers investing money not into traditional entertainment incentive tours but in team-building tours. In this matter travel agencies work together with business consulting companies, professional psychologists, etc. The example can be so called “rope-courses”. They last for 3-4 days and are comprised of different activities including sport, adventure and extreme. The emphasis of the courses is placed not on sport abilities of the participants, but on effective teamwork, problem solution, leadership skills development and behaviour adjustment to different situations and sudden changes. Some travel agencies called incentive houses specialize at incentive tours only.
Словосочетанием деловой туризм (Business travel) можно обозначить два понятия. Первое – это деловая поездка бизнесмена или менеджера с целью развития бизнеса. Второе – развитая индустрия по обслуживанию деловых поездок.
Специалисты обычно рассматривают понятие деловой туризм как бизнес-систему, состоящую из четырех подсистем. Это четырехугольник, в углах которого находятся: “компании-заказчики” (они направляют своих сотрудников в деловые поездки), “компании-поставщики отдельного вида услуг” (авиакомпании, отели, бюро по аренде автомобилей, страховые компании и др.), “компании-поставщики полного комплекса услуг (туроператоры) в сфере деловых поездок” и “организации и фирмы индустрии MICE”.
В среде Business travel деловые поездки принято делить на несколько видов в зависимости от целей и пакета востребованных услуг. Это собственно индивидуальные деловые поездки, на долю которых в среднем в мире приходится 70-78 % от общего объема деловых поездок. Поездки для участия в конференциях, конгрессах и семинарах – 12-14 %.. Поездки на выставки – 10-12 %. Поощрительные поездки как одна из форм мотивации и поощрения сотрудников, партнеров, клиентов, торговых агентов, дистрибьюторов и руководителей высокого ранга составляют 3-7 %. Виды деловых поездок могут тесно переплетаться, например, вы-ставочно-конгрессные и поощрительные поездки.
Vocabulary
To make arrangements – договариваться, уславливаться industry-specific exhibitions – специализированные выставки construction – строительство furniture – мебель military – военный fair – ярмарка wood processing – обработка древесины supply – предложение clock-art forum – форум часового искусства trend – направление, тенденция market share – доля рынка to note – замечать in advance – заранее to attend – посещать bulk – основная часть, большое количество pharmaceutical company – фармацевтическая компания insurance company – страховая компания charter flights – чартерные рейсы discount – скидка to require – требовать Read and translate the text.
(1 votes, average: 5,00 out of 5)