The best is to bring the client into the region, then they are almost all very positive surprised what Graz has to offer
Q: What trends do you think we will see in meetings and events in your city in the next 12months?
The forecast for meetings and conferences in the city of Graz is very positive for 2016. Last year the city of Graz hosted about 150 conferences with more than 40000 participants. For 2016, we expect a slight increase.
Q: How is your city positioned as a meeting destination today and what are its positive attributes that are often overlooked?
In Austria Graz is number 3 behind Vienna and Salzburg for conferences and meetings. If we only count association conferences – where Graz is very good, because of 6 universities, international companies and research institutions – we are number two behind Vienna. Although city tourism in Graz increased in the last 10 years about 25 to 30 percent the city is still a business centre and therefor business travel and conferences, meetings, trade fairs etc. count for about 70 percent of all overnights.
Only conferences bring about 130.000 overnights to Graz every year, which is about 12% of the total.
Q: How hard is it to get the message out about all that your city has to offer?
Graz has a very good reputation as a conference destination especially for associations and scientific societies, of course in the German speaking regions but also international. For tourism, incentive travel or company meetings it is mostly a quite unknown destination, so we always have to explain about Graz where it is and what it is (how big, history, sights, specialities, region…..).
Q: How do you see relationship between the meetings industry and the tourism industry?
In my opinion a (scientific) conference or meeting are not part of tourism industry. The tourism industry delivers certain services (accommodation, catering, transfers, social program etc.) but is not so important for conference organisers as the might think of themselves. For example about 75% of all conferences in Graz take use of internal university meeting rooms and are not using conference centres. If organisers can avoid touristic infrastructure (cost!) the will use other infrastructure. For example Airbnb becomes more and more important also for conference participants.
Convention Bureaus can be important information and service provider but have a small influence in the entire organisation of a conference. But in the decision process the Destination, Convention Bureaus or Tourism Organisations can be very helpful.
Q: Tell us something that might surprise meeting planners about your city?
Even Graz is a small city with only 300.000 inhabitants, Graz is the second largest city in Austria. About 50.000 students from all over Europe and also Asia are studying on 6 universities with more than 16 faculties. Research institutions in aerospace and automotive technology, in biotechnology and plant design are located in Graz. The same holds true for private high-tech businesses that export their products worldwide.
Graz can offers two international conference centres (www.mcg.at) and more than 40 event locations from old castles, palaces, monasteries up to hyper modern design locations. The old town of Graz is a UNESCO world cultural heritage and offers a unique cultural program from classical opera house, theatres, concert halls, international festivals etc.
No visit in Graz is complete without a visit of the Schlossberg (castle hill) and wonderful round view from the clock tower over the red brick roofs and the green surroundings.
Q: Can content marketing drive meeting planners to your destination?
I think more important are the services and support we can provide for organisers. Marketing alone is mostly not enough to convince an organiser to come to your destination.
