Produced by UK business events think tank, The Business of Events, the report surveyed corporate event planners, association event planners and agency event planners based in the UK, Western Europe and North America. Planners were asked to rank the importance of twelve areas when choosing an event destination or venue.
The results showed that, on average across all three regions, the importance of sustainability has risen by 1.5 points on a ranking scale of one to ten. Skills and talent and equity and diversity are the two other areas that saw a significant elevation in importance amongst planners.
North American planners rated all three of these decision factors lower than the UK or Europe, but survey responses still evidenced an uptick in their importance.
Cost and value for money remains important across all regions, while in North America, accessibility and ease of travel, safety and security and the quality and suitability of the event venue remain the most important factors.
Across all three markets, sectoral strengths were considered the least important.
“As you would expect to see, cost and value for money remain a key factor in decision making when it comes to selecting a destination or venue, although more so among UK planners than in Europe and North America,” said Martin Fullard, director of news and content for The Business of Events.
“Predictably, accessibility and ease of travel also tracks highly, so destinations with better air and rail links will find themselves at an advantage.”
