Since the economic and financial crisis is still knocking on the doors of the meetings industry, we asked a few of the market players how they are dealing with this crisis and which innovative strategies they use to overcome it.
Koren Sports
In 2009, Koren Sports faced a decline in demand for organising business events with its key clients and this is why we began preparing our presence in new market segments back in 2008. We expanded our services to cover products for individuals and special products for families. This strategy of expanding our product range will diversify our activity and thus alleviate the fluctuations in demand in individual segments.
Sava TMC
Sava’s Tourism division is entering 2010 unified and under the Sava Hotels & Resorts umbrella brand. The new Sava TMC d.o.o. company, which was set up in September 2009, establishes the joint marketing and sales of our capacities, which we will also utilise in the convention tourism segment.
In this way, we will be able to substantially increase our presence at the most important tradeshows and workshops abroad with one company representing the entire meetings range of Sava Hotels & Resorts. We are well aware that an active presence at such events only generates visible results in the long-run. This is why we will implement additional marketing activities on the domestic market and try to obtain other smaller events for the short-term period of this and the next year. It was for this reason that our contact centre has already conducted an extensive calling campaign among Slovenian companies, again reminding meetings organisers of our capacities and inviting them to get to know us better. We further prepared a new concept of corporate cooperation that will help us follow our loyal clients in a more efficient way, offering additional benefits that they will be able to use in all our destinations.
Similar to the holiday segment, the meetings segment will feature attractive offers of some of the new markets that we did not cover before, especially the Balkans and Southeast Europe.
We asked some of the leading manager in SEE Region what are their expectations in year 2010.
Peter Fuchs, Valamar
“Valamar management team expects that 2010 will be even harder than the previous year due to the global crisis. However, due to constant evaluation and attentive planning, we will continue with our investments in HR and Quality, as well as the development of new products in order to provide unique experience for our clients. We are mainly oriented towards upgrading our services, increasing the products’ quality and their adjustment to new market demands.
Reconstruction of the Neptun hotel in Poreč is in progress, as well as its branding as the Valamar Riviera Hotel & Residence****. The wellness centre in the Valamar Koralj hotel on Krk island is under construction and will be opened on time and according to plan. One of the strategic aims of our leading Croatian hospitality management company is further investment in the MICE segment, especially after last year’ opening of the Valamar Lacroma Resort****, the biggest congress and spa hotel in Dubrovnik.”
Roman Matek, Thermana
“In year 2010 we would like to finish (re)building Wellness Park Laško and our hotel. We would like to become an important player in meeting industry in Slovenia and region.
