Going digital: more than one third of planners across all regions say online sourcing platforms have become a crucial resource for site selection. Photo Credit: Adobe stock/ChayTee
Cvent’s latest edition of its bi-annual Cvent Planner Sourcing Report
reveals positive momentum across APAC’s MICE industry. This comes in
the face of rising costs, staffing shortages, and suggests opportunities
for hoteliers to tap on the growing demand for in-person experiences.
The report assists hospitality professionals with key trends that
impact how event organisers source and select hotels/venues and manage
their events. The regional editions, based on responses from hundreds of
event planners across various sectors, were published for Asia,
Australia, the Middle East and Africa.
Ready for rising costs
Most Asian planners (80%), and those in the Middle East and Africa
(85%), and Australia (76%) anticipate paying more for similar-sized and
complex meetings in 2023 than in 2022. Hence, most planners also expect a
rise in their event budgets with 90% in Asia, 88% in Australia, 79% in
the Middle East and Africa, respectively.
Hotels and venues are advised to differentiate themselves by
providing premium services and amenities that justify the higher costs.
While planners are willing to spend more, “hoteliers should also focus
on tailoring their offerings to meet the planners' expectations and
requirements, which would ultimately lead to increased revenue”, it
suggested.
Digital floor plans are in
Event planners are turning more to digital resources in their
planning process, with more than one third of planners across all
regions saying online sourcing platforms have become a crucial resource
for site selection. In-person site visits are being replaced with
digital online tours to factor in rising costs.
With 54% of planners in Asia, 53% in Australia, and 43% in the Middle
East & Africa using digital floor plans and online event diagrams
to find out about meeting room capabilities and to decide whether the
hotel is suitable for their event, these results show the growing need
of a hotel’s online presence to attract planners.
Nurturing relationships
The report also reveals that existing relationships should be
developed as event planners value professionalism and partnership in
hotel staff with 38% in Australia saying it is important followed by 35%
in Asia and 26% in Middle East & Africa.
Leveraging technology solutions that enable more seamless
collaboration between planners and hoteliers, or that streamline complex
processes like group room block management to reduce workload is
another important way hospitality professionals can enhance their
relationships with planners and further strengthen their reputation in
the industry.
Survey background
Cvent commissioned Censuswide, an independent research company, to
survey over 400 event planners across Asia (China, Singapore, India, and
Thailand), Australia (New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland,
South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia) and Middle
East and Africa (United Arab Emirates and South Africa). The survey was
conducted from 23 March to 5 April 2023.