Foreign literature is paying more and more attention to convention bureaux (CB), yet  stress is mainly put on Northern American entities [e.g. Getz, Anderson, and Sheehan 1998; Morrison, Bruen, and Anderson 1998]. A number of publications present various roles that CBs can perform in cities and local meetings industry. These include for example the function of [Wang 2008]:

• destination/community marketer/promoter,
• destination image/brand developer,
• industry coordinator,
• advocate/supporter/facilitator of tourism projects,
• economic driver,
• builder of community pride,
• partnership/alliance builder,
• destination planner/manager,
• destination product developer.

However, it has not been pointed out yet which of these roles should prevail over others, which means that it has not been stated what roles should be CBs’ priorities. In addition, it has not been determined whether tasks and roles will be the same for each CB or whether they will differ for example depending on the extent to which local meetings industry will be developed and how long a particular CB has been functioning in it.

With reference to the above, a study was carried out with the following research subject in mind: what is the relationship between the roles played by a CB and competitiveness of cities in the international meetings market? In this case, competitiveness was measured based on the number of international meetings according to an ICCA ranking (International Congress and Convention Association). The aim of the project, in turn, was to find what roles CBs play in local meetings industry divided into institutions operating in cities with a varying degree of competitiveness. The study conducted enabled identifying tasks and organizational solutions which should help raise city competitiveness in the meetings market. The project was carried out on a sample of 73 CBs operating in ICCA ranking cities between May and September 2016. Analysis focused on tasks performed by those CBs. Czytaj dalej →