The study entitled the 2017 Global Planner Sourcing Report, was conducted April – June 2017 and surveyed more than 1,200 planners worldwide, including nearly 300 planners in the UK. The planners in the UK working for corporations, associations and other organisations.
More than half of those (54%) who responded were Millennials (18-34%) with nearly four in ten (38%) aged between 35-52.
Other highlights in the survey include:
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Four in ten planners revealed that venues could improve chances of getting business by providing answers to all of their questions to request for proposals (RFPs), nearly a quarter (24%) stated accurate pricing quotes would improve chances of winning the RFP, whilst nearly a fifth (19%) said more should meet the response deadlines to win more business.
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Location, venue cost, and availability of preferred dates are the top features that influence a planner’s decision to book a specific venue. Event planners also said the comparing different price structures, negotiating with the venue and researching venues caused the most challenges during the sourcing process
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6% of planners surveyed are not certain about the destination or their budget in the early stages of planning their event, while in contrast only a fifth were extremely or very certain about the event venue.
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30% of overall respondents use a standard chain hotel for events, whilst nearly the same (29%) opt for cultural venues such as museums, 21% prefer hotels with unique meeting spaces. 16% prefer independent or boutique hotels.
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Event planners still rely heavily on word of mouth, citing peer recommendations as the top influence for sourcing venues (28%) followed by the venue’s corporate website (20%) and Google search engines (19%).
Commenting on the findings, Stacey Fontenot, VP of marketing for Cvent said: “Not surprisingly, location and cost continue to be the key factors that planners look for when selecting a venue. Event planners have made it clear there are certain frustrations, including accuracy in pricing and response time to RFPs, they have during the RFP process, that venues can work to address to generate more events and business.”
