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Now, we're going to see rapid growth of
city-based tourism as part of the
leisure market, the short breaks, but we're also going to see it
as part of the conferencing market because, 33 percent
of all tourism happens, on one side or another
of corporate events. And despite the
the challenges of global warming, despite the sensitivities
about the environment, despite the increasing costs of travel
we will continue to see healthy growth in the corporate events market.
And an increasing quality. Let me explain why.
As companies become increasingly virtual, it's very common for me to work
with organisations where, let's say the
leader of the team is (in) Hong Kong, his deputy is in Frankfurt,
he's got two other members of staff in New York and Boston,
he's got another person in Shanghai, and this is the team.
It might be of a bank or of an oil company.
or a
wholesale goods supplier. It doesn't matter what it is. But the fact is
pulling these teams together is difficult, because it's expensive. So when you're going to
do it
you've got to combine it with other things. So you're going to visit a client
and you get your team together. Or, you get the team together
when many of the other teams are also getting together from the same business
unit.
So we're seeing focused, highly efficient,
multi-dimensional business meetings, with one meeting layer stacked on top of
another. And these things will continue. And the more virtual we are
the more these kinds of occasional meetings, become important. Strategic,
for vision building, building a your tribe getting across
corporate values, managing a process of change
and so on. But as corporate
requirements continue to increase, so do, unfortunately,
the need for variety. So it's no good
a city just continuing to market the same conference centre and that's why,
we're seeing all kinds of experimentation with things like
using a cruise ship as a corporate venue, or
at using
strange locations inside, for instance, non-profit organisations,
where a business might be exposed to the passion
and the spirit of volunteerism, right in the middle of a corporate event.