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PROJECT PROFILE: U.S. Travel Association (USTA, 2011 award)
U.S. Travel Association officials in Paris brief French meeting planners about the advantages of holding conventions and other large meetings at U.S. venues. image: USTA
Choosing U.S. Venues for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE)
Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) constitutes a substantial portion of the international travel and tourism trade. U.S. Travel Association (U.S. Travel or USTA) has had great success in helping representatives of various U.S. venues to convince foreign meeting planners to choose U.S. destinations.
MDCP Award/USTA Match: $491,681/$999,855
Markets Targeted: Sweden, Japan, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, France, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany
U.S. Industry Promoted: Travel and tourism
Period: 2011-2018
Key ITA Collaborators:
- Julie Heizer, Industry & Analysis, National Travel and Tourism Office
- April Redmon, Rosslyn, Virginia USEAC
- Hannah Kamenetsky, Commercial Service, Frankfurt, Germany
Project Description:
- Recuit top MICE buyers.
- Facilitate matchmaking at IPW.
- Educate industry about relevant foreign regulation.
- Create online virtual marketplace.
Project Milestone Report (Part B)
Projected Exports Generated by 2018: $420,000,000
Exports Generated by 2013-2017: $856,000,000
Exports Per Dollar of Award: $1,741
The average overseas visitor to the United States spends about five times more than domestic travelers. Additionally, international MICE travelers are generally the highest per capita revenue generators of any category of visitors, often spending 2-3 times as much as leisure tourists.
Leveraging Attractive U.S. Destinations for International Meetings
Of the top ten cities named the “Best Cities in the World for Business Meetings,” five were in the United States. The U.S. has an abundance of large meeting venues and conference centers capable of hosting very large MICE events. Cities like New York, Orlando and Las Vegas are specifically built to service the meetings industry and host thousands of MICE events every year. (Las Vegas hosted over 18,000 meetings and conventions in 2010.) Most of these destinations have huge convention centers and are convenient gateway cities offering non-stop flights to international attendees.
$856 Million in Exports Generated Exceeds Goal
In its MDCP application, U.S. Travel estimated that its project would generate $420 million in service exports by 2018. With several months to go in its project, the association has already more than doubled its goal.
Some of the export success has come from relatively small markets like Estonia, Iceland, and Denmark. This results, in part, from U.S. Travel's strategy to meet with potential clients close to their homes abroad. Supported by ITA's staff posted abroad and its Washington D.C.-based National Travel and Tourism Office, U.S. Travel has reached out directly to meeting planners and others in Western Europe and elsewhere who make decisions about where to hold meetings, conventions, and exhibitions.
This travel-intensive outreach complements the work U.S. Travel does each year at its own trade show in the United States, IPW. U.S. Travel has used the MDCP award funds to help MICE buyers who attend IPW. Through meetings conducted at IPW, these MICE buyers find more opportunities to send their business to the United States. MICE buyers receive such benefits in exchange for commitment to help track quarterly MICE business booked at U.S. venues.
IT11MAS1120002 -- SF case 91127
WINs: 20677,
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U.S. Travel Association runs IPW, the U.S. travel industry's annual trade show. U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the travel industry that generates $2.1 trillion in economic output and supports 15.1 million American jobs. U.S. Travel is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
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