April 2007 saw the first Paris-based edition of Rhône-Alpes Tourisme’s Business Class workshop, followed by similar events in Geneva the same year, in Brussels and London in 2008, and again in Geneva in 2009 in partnership with Atout France. Two new events, along the same lines, are planned for next year in Brussels and London.

In the meantime Rhône-Alpes Tourisme will be setting out its wares in Paris on 28 January between 5.30 pm and 10 pm during the Rhône-Alpes Business Class workshop involving 15 partners from the region and with the participation of about 100 representatives from major companies and event agencies looking for new ideas and venues for their seminars and incentives. The 2007 event was held in the Salon des Miroirs Passage Jouffroy, but for the 2010 workshop another new trendy establishment has been chosen. Known as Le 24 , it is located in a 17^th C town house in Place des Vosges and belongs to a well-known auctioneer who has created an upmarket, exclusive venue.

Only recently open for business, it is a remarkable property. On hand from Rhône-Alpes Tourisme will be Managing Director, Marc Béchet; Marketing Director, Michèle Bardet; Marketing Manager for Business Tourism, Annie Martinez, and Peggy Perron, Events Manager. Among the partners present at the workshop will be the Lyon, Aix les Bains and Évian Convention Bureau, the Château de Bagnols, Megève Tourism, Best Mont Blanc hotels in Chamonix, the Lyon Sofitel, the Grands Hôtels de la Clusaz, the Trésoms Lake and Spa resort in Annecy, the Hilton Evian…

Our aim is to get Rhône-Alpes better known as a business tourism destination as we’re actually the third choice nationally for seminars, conferences, conventions and incentives after àŽle-de-France and PACA, confirms Annie Martinez. The reason why we’re organising such an event in Paris is because 70% of the French business tourism market is concentrated within the Paris region. What’s more this market sector is still very much centred on France, with almost 96% of companies choosing to hold their events in France, 20% of them occasionally venturing abroad .

The criteria for choice of destination are, in order of preference, access, price, the creativity of the venue and the response time to the initial request. It’s important to note that 76% of organisers regularly change their choice of destination and this gives the Rhône-Alpes an added advantage because of its diversity , adds Annie Martinez. Having been affected by the global economic crisis which has severely slowed business, the tourism industry is looking forward to an upward trend in 2010. A number of groups were organising on average one meeting per month before the economic crisis, but this year they’ve settled on just four or five, notes Annie Martinez. In 2010, we should return to the usual frequency and to budgets similar to those in 2008 .

In the Rhône-Alpes, business tourism represents just 1% of total bed nights but almost 10% of the sector’s turnover equalling 800 million euros of the region’s total income from tourism of 9.8 billion euros. Which explains why everyone is desperate to attract this clientele renowned for spending four times more than a traditional tourist!

A few statistic for those of you who like to know the numbers, it is worth noting that seminars make up the vast majority of business tourism (89%) followed by company conferences (24%), events (17,5%), congresses (11%) and incentives (7%). In 2007 (ie, before the economic crisis), 22% of French companies organised more than 20 seminars in a year. On average, these events lasted two days (60%), one day (52%), three days (33%), half a day (21%), between four and seven days (19%) and over a week (3%). In order to organise the workshop, Rhône-Alpes Tourisme has relied on the expertise of Meedex (Meeting Destination Experts) which possesses a large client database.