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Planners Need More From Destinations

  • Skift Take
    There’s a glut of information out there about global destinations. Planners, though, really need strong partners to help them craft successful events when the pressure is on.

    In a market defined by competition among destinations for the world’s growing event, meeting, and incentive business, strong partnerships between stakeholders are crucial.

    New research shows that planners want more support from destinations, particularly when it comes to safety and security for their events. They’re also worried about budget cuts and dealing with event partners in a marketplace with increased demand and costs.

    There’s also evidence that event organizers are moving away from online resources to social media and print for information about destinations, probably due to the glut of overwhelmingly positive content put out there by destination marketing organizations each year. Check out the story below.

    We also have the latest on the mainstreaming of wellness at Hyatt and the emergence of Equinox Hotels as an option for wellness-oriented events beginning next year.

    If you have any feedback about the newsletter or news tips, feel free to reach out to me via email at as@skift.com or tweet me @sheivach.

    — Andrew Sheivachman, Business Travel Editor

    The Future of Events and Meetings

    Meeting Planners Stress Most About Dealing With Safety and Security: Destinations need to provide more services to planners in an extremely competitive marketplace for events. Despite the proliferation of online destination information, nothing beats a strong relationship between planner and destination to help ease the stress felt by event professionals.

    Hyatt to Buy Two Roads Hospitality for $480 Million: Hyatt’s M&A strategy might be best summarized as this: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

    Equinox Will Launch Luxury Tours in 2019 as New Hotels Open: If it ends up being successful, and we don’t see any red flags why it wouldn’t be, Equinox will have a value proposition not many travel brands can touch: an exclusive place to work out, sleep, and explore the world.

    Hyatt Adds Its Spa Business Exhale to Loyalty Program: This makes a ton of sense for World of Hyatt, but again will scale prove to be a challenge for Hyatt and for Exhale?

    Around the Industry

    What European Luxury Hotels Can Learn from Their Midscale Cousins: Maybe it’s because Europe has a higher percentage of independent hotels. Maybe it’s because Europe is made up of so many distinct cultures. Regardless, it seems that for some reason, in Europe, hospitality industry innovation tilts toward individuality. Analysts tell us why that is the case.

    The Backlash Against Smart Cities Is Here: Toronto residents aren’t happy about their personal information and behavioral data being owned by Google’s parent Alphabet. Expect more fights like this to emerge in coming years.

    Facial Recognition Takes Small Steps Forward: Events are playing around with facial recognition concepts, but airport security and retail are more likely to lead the way on adoption.

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    Skift Business Travel Editor Andrew Sheivachman [as@skift.com] curates the Skift Meetings Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Wednesday.

    Subscribe to the Skift Meetings Innovation Report

    Photo Credit: The PCMA convention at the San Diego Convention Center in 2012. San Diego Convention Center / Flickr
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