Meeting Planners Rely Heavily on Online Research to Find a Venue; Tremendous Opportunity for Venues and DMOs
More meeting planners are going online to find and research venues for their events. That, one agency says, provides enormous opportunity for venues and destinations who wish to attract more meetings and conventions to their region.
St. Petersburg, Florida, January 9, 2015 (Newswire.com) - According to figures from 2012, meetings contributed 115 billion to the United States GDP, and spurred $280 billion in direct spending. Bookings of venues and accommodations comprised about $50 million of this direct spend.
According to Destination Marketing Association International’s Meeting Planner Survey, 68 percent of meeting planners rely exclusively or heavily on their own online research to find the right venue. Further research, by the Market Dynamics Research Group, reveals that meeting planners most frequently use online resources – such as hotel websites, online search and social media – when creating a short list of venues.
“This presents a tremendous opportunity for venues and DMOs [Destination Marketing Organizations] to get found online by meeting planners,” says Sara MacQueen of Booked Up Venues, a digital marketing consultancy for meeting and convention venues. “Study after study is showing that buyers are doing more of their pre-purchase research online. My mission is to help venues understand how to capitalize on this.”
A white paper, written by MacQueen, is available for download on the Booked Up Venues website. The paper explores the research into how meeting professionals are searching for and choosing venues for their events and conferences; and what the findings mean for venues and DMOs who wish to raise awareness of their product, and secure more bookings.
http://bookedupvenues.com/the-case-for-inbound-marketing.html
About Booked Up Venues
Booked Up Venues is a training and consulting company, and digital marketing agency that serves the meeting and convention venue industry. Through targeted training, consulting, blogging, speaking and a suite of managed digital marketing services, they help venues get found by meeting planners while they’re researching venues and destinations online.
Visit their website: http://bookedupvenues.com