Business Tourism in China. The Case of Guangzhou

Abstract

This paper aims at studying the business tourism that affects this economically emerging country, with special regard to the business tourism in Guangzhou (better known as Canton), its influence on urban economy and its relations with other types of tourism. A qualitative-quantitative approach has been used: the qualitative part has been based upon the existing literature and the direct observation of the analysed area, during a field mission of about one month; the quantitative part has been based on related figures. Business tourism represents the primary motivation of inbound tourism in Guangzhou, which is a hot destination for investments, offering considerable business opportunities. Guangzhou is also the Chinese city that hosts the highest number of trade fairs, the most important of which is the "China Import and Export Fair", the biggest Chinese commercial fair. Figures about inbound business tourism flow are not available. Nevertheless, we can assume that business tourism represents the core business of the tourism sector in the city and estimate that the related incoming flow is not less than one million visitors per year.

Business tourism under apartheid: The historical development of South Africa’s conference industry

“…Although its definition is contested the concept of business tourism is applied usually to encompass mobilities for independent business trips and travelling for purposes of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions -MICE tourism (Davidson, 1994;Oppermann & Chon, 1997;Davidson & Rogers, 2006;Ladkin, 2006;Beaverstock et al, 2010;Rogers, 2013;Willis et al, 2017). Conference tourism is seen as a high-yield area of the tourism industry and a significant generator of tourism expenditure, foreign exchange and employment generation (Horvath, 2011;Iacuone & Zarrilli, 2018). Both Weber and Chon (2002) and Locke (2012) stress that because of the high quality, high-yield nature of these business travellers, tourism marketing organisations are keen to attract conference or convention visitors.…”

“…Lau (2004: 1) states "MICE properties now form an important component of local economic development strategies and are often supported by significant public spending in the set-up and development phases". Overall, convention centres can attract business to urban centres and catalyse substantial returns for local economies in the form of spending on accommodation, local transportation and other tourism products in the value chain of MICE tourism (Law, 1987;Oppermann & Chon, 1997;Lau, 2004;Iacuone & Zarrilli, 2018).…”

Valuation and Motivation of the Meeting Industry: A Case Study From Guayaquil, Ecuador

“…International tourist arrivals grew by 6% in the first four months of 2018, compared to the same period last year, not only continuing the strong trend of 2017, but exceeding the forecasts of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2018). Business tourism has gained increasing importance in the last decades worldwide (Iacuone & Zarrilli, 2018). This article focuses on one of the fastest growing segments in tourism, called MICE (meeting tourism, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), which worldwide has increased simultaneously with economic growth and globalization trends, there are many reasons, among the most mentioned are the economic benefits for the destination and community (Horváth, 2011;Martín et al, 2017;Xie & Sinwald, 2016), because it generates on average a higher level of expenditure, reduces seasonality, contributes to the regeneration of destinations, disseminates knowledge and improves innovation and creativity (OMT, 2014), this type of tourism was valued at $ 752 billion in 2016 (Allied Marked Research, 2016).…”