All bureaux services were assessed highly, with most ratings above the levels of 2012.
International associations and meeting planners have given BestCities and their ten partner bureaux some of the highest satisfaction scores on record in the alliance’s 2013 annual client survey.
141 clients from the association market segment participated in the independent survey; using a 1 to 10 rating scale where 1 is “very poor” and 10 is “very good”.
All bureaux services were assessed highly, with most ratings above the levels of 2012. In particular, clients rated the very critical “assistance with preparing bid documentation” at 9.43, an increase of 0.13 points over the all-time average.
The overall experience of working with the ten BestCities’ bureaux in Berlin, Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Houston, Melbourne, Singapore and Vancouver was rated at 9.26, the highest score since the survey began in 2009.
The likelihood of clients to recommend the bureaux to their colleagues was also higher at 9.45 than in 2012 at 9.34 and higher than the all-year average.
Delegate boosting services is an area that is of great importance to associations and it generated a mainly positive response from clients who scored the bureaux promotional and marketing material 8.53 and internet and email campaign 8.14. The level of “overall satisfaction with building delegate attendance” was also at an all-time high of 8.50.
BestCities has retained LJ Research (LJR) annually since 2009 to capture feedback from clients in the international association market on a range of services provided by partner bureaux during both the bidding and event delivery stages.
“Given today’s strong competitive environment for convention bureaux, it is very pleasing to see our partners rated so highly in all of the key areas of the survey,” said Ms Karen Bolinger, 2014 BestCities Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Melbourne Convention Bureau.
“With five years of data on record, we can now quite clearly make assessments regarding ongoing levels of service and expertise provided by our partners, as well as monitoring the alliance’s commitment to provide quality services and deliver the world’s best convention bureau practices.
“The brand awareness of BestCities, as an entity, is also important and we are pleased that, for the second consecutive year, the largest year-on-year increase was recorded for the statement ‘given the option, I would prefer to work with BestCities Global Alliance when organising future events – 8.93.
“This indicates greater recognition not only of the BestCities brand, but also that of the role of the alliance, which in turn, will help deliver greater ROI for our partners and more dynamic benefits for our clients,” Ms Bolinger concluded.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.