January seems set to be a record month for conference and incentive travel, a welcome trend after a sluggish 2007, which saw business travel down by 3.5 per cent. Malta Tourism Authority chairman Sam Mifsud said in an interview (see pages 10, 11), that conference organisers had been put off by the lack of seats in 2006 and that it took time for momentum to be built up again once lost.
Noel Debono, owner of the Medina restaurant in Mdina and the council member for the restaurant sector of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Associations, said that 2006 had been very disappointing.
"We had received a number of provisional bookings that were cancelled because the organisers simply could not find flights. We lost quite a few groups, which was quite serious for us because conference and incentive groups are our core business," he said.
"However, the word is getting out that things are better and last year we saw an upturn, with groups continuing past the usual peak in autumn right until mid-December.
"This year started well and we have two to three groups a week this month and a good level of enquiries for spring. It is too early to say how autumn will be but we are not concerned. Whereas in the past, conferences were booked years in advance, the lead time has since reduced to months so there is still time."
The same optimism was expressed by Ruben Caruana, the business development manager for the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre.
"We were still new on the market last year," he said, referring to the Ta' Qali venue. "This year we should start to see the results of all the marketing that we did last year. The world of conference organisers is very small and they wait to get feedback before trying something new. The Thomas Cook conference we organised last year put us on the map," he said.
"This year has started off very well with some very innovative events planned, using new venues and facilities. It is important to be creative for conference and incentive travel; we come up with ideas that are so spectacular that they attract foreign journalists."
Hotels also rely on this sector to boost occupancy outside the peak summer months. Alex Incorvaja, the director of sales and marketing at the Intercontinental Hotel said January was going to be an excellent month, although February was not as good.
"2007 was better than 2006 but since the lead times are getting shorter it is too soon to say how 2008 will turn out. For hotels, it is really a matter of expectation and since you forecast occupancies of 45-55 per cent for the low season, it is easy to reach or exceed your targets."
Mr Incorvaja agrees that seat capacity on flights was an issue.
"Tour operators would book allocations and keep them until the last moment so conference organisers would not be able to book the large numbers when they wanted, even though the tour operators might have released the seats at the last minute," he said.
"The fact that passengers are using low-cost airlines and that tour operator business is refocussing on long-haul destinations means that there are more seats available on legacy airlines."
Fiona Captur, the managing director of the local conference handling company Unconventional Malta, believes the lead times have been getting shorter because companies are waiting until their financial results are out before deciding how much to spend on corporate events like conferences and incentive travel.
"If you had asked me how things looked in January for the year ahead, I would have probably said quite bleak. But between March and May bookings came in which resulted in an excellent 2007 overall. We think it augurs well for 2008 and feelings are very positive. Of course it depends on what your market is, but Europe is buzzing," she said.
The MHRA president Josef Formosa Gauci also said that the drop in conference and incentive business last year over 2006 was mainly due to the lack of seat capacity in 2005/06, but he warned against complacency.
"The MHRA lobbied strongly during the latter part of 2005 and early months of 2006 to convince government to increase seat capacity to Malta. It was only in the latter part of 2006 that certain decisions were taken to address the issue of adequate and competitive seat capacity to Malta.
"Conference and incentive business is planned well in advance and there was a lack of confidence that there would be the required capacity; as a result business in 2007 experienced a drop. The situation in 2008, with more routes coming onstream, makes us optimistic that conference and incentive travel will do well and increase over the figures achieved in the last two years.
"MHRA also acknowledges the effort made by the relevant section within MTA to further promote Malta as a conference venue and augurs that it will have adequate funding to further promote this section."
Noel Debono, owner of the Medina restaurant in Mdina and the council member for the restaurant sector of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Associations, said that 2006 had been very disappointing.
"We had received a number of provisional bookings that were cancelled because the organisers simply could not find flights. We lost quite a few groups, which was quite serious for us because conference and incentive groups are our core business," he said.
"However, the word is getting out that things are better and last year we saw an upturn, with groups continuing past the usual peak in autumn right until mid-December.
"This year started well and we have two to three groups a week this month and a good level of enquiries for spring. It is too early to say how autumn will be but we are not concerned. Whereas in the past, conferences were booked years in advance, the lead time has since reduced to months so there is still time."
The same optimism was expressed by Ruben Caruana, the business development manager for the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre.
"We were still new on the market last year," he said, referring to the Ta' Qali venue. "This year we should start to see the results of all the marketing that we did last year. The world of conference organisers is very small and they wait to get feedback before trying something new. The Thomas Cook conference we organised last year put us on the map," he said.
"This year has started off very well with some very innovative events planned, using new venues and facilities. It is important to be creative for conference and incentive travel; we come up with ideas that are so spectacular that they attract foreign journalists."
Hotels also rely on this sector to boost occupancy outside the peak summer months. Alex Incorvaja, the director of sales and marketing at the Intercontinental Hotel said January was going to be an excellent month, although February was not as good.
"2007 was better than 2006 but since the lead times are getting shorter it is too soon to say how 2008 will turn out. For hotels, it is really a matter of expectation and since you forecast occupancies of 45-55 per cent for the low season, it is easy to reach or exceed your targets."
Mr Incorvaja agrees that seat capacity on flights was an issue.
"Tour operators would book allocations and keep them until the last moment so conference organisers would not be able to book the large numbers when they wanted, even though the tour operators might have released the seats at the last minute," he said.
"The fact that passengers are using low-cost airlines and that tour operator business is refocussing on long-haul destinations means that there are more seats available on legacy airlines."
Fiona Captur, the managing director of the local conference handling company Unconventional Malta, believes the lead times have been getting shorter because companies are waiting until their financial results are out before deciding how much to spend on corporate events like conferences and incentive travel.
"If you had asked me how things looked in January for the year ahead, I would have probably said quite bleak. But between March and May bookings came in which resulted in an excellent 2007 overall. We think it augurs well for 2008 and feelings are very positive. Of course it depends on what your market is, but Europe is buzzing," she said.
The MHRA president Josef Formosa Gauci also said that the drop in conference and incentive business last year over 2006 was mainly due to the lack of seat capacity in 2005/06, but he warned against complacency.
"The MHRA lobbied strongly during the latter part of 2005 and early months of 2006 to convince government to increase seat capacity to Malta. It was only in the latter part of 2006 that certain decisions were taken to address the issue of adequate and competitive seat capacity to Malta.
"Conference and incentive business is planned well in advance and there was a lack of confidence that there would be the required capacity; as a result business in 2007 experienced a drop. The situation in 2008, with more routes coming onstream, makes us optimistic that conference and incentive travel will do well and increase over the figures achieved in the last two years.
"MHRA also acknowledges the effort made by the relevant section within MTA to further promote Malta as a conference venue and augurs that it will have adequate funding to further promote this section."