Yorkshire Executive Summary 2006
Introduction
The British Conference Venues Survey (BCVS) is a national survey that is conducted annually. This report provides an analysis of venues in Yorkshire. The sample at the national level was 314 valid responses and 81 valid responses for Yorkshire.
Conferences in Yorkshire 2006 the Key Facts
Number of Conferences
There were an estimated 168,000 conferences and meetings in Yorkshire in 2006 - an average 400 conferences per venue. This was on a par with the reported UK average of 392 conferences per venue.
Residential Conferences
The majority (74%) of conferences did not involve an overnight stay.
About a quarter involved an overnight stay the majority of this was at the venue (18%) the rest (7%) involved an overnight stay in the wider destination.
Yorkshire had a lower proportion of overnight conferences than the national average (25% compared to 35%).
Length of Conferences.
The average conference duration was 1.6 days, although most conferences (66%) lasted a day or less. This varied from 1.4 days for non- residential conferences to 2.1 days for residential conferences. This was broadly the same as the national pattern.
The most common type of conference was a non-residential day conference (60% of Yorkshires reported conferences). Other common conferences included two day non-residential conferences (12% of all reported conferences) and two day residential conferences (8%).
Timing of conferences
Peak periods for conferences in Yorkshire were in the shoulder months, particularly in late summer and autumn (i.e. September, October and November) and also in March and June. Quieter conference months were during the summer period (particularly August) and winter period (particularly January).
This pattern was similar to the national picture.
Delegate Rates
The average daily delegate rate achieved by venues for conferences was £36 (inc VAT). This was similar to the national average.
The average 24 hour / residential rate was £128 (inc VAT) this was broadly the same as the national average.
Conference Booking
Approximately 34% of conferences were booked by a professional conference organiser or venue finding agency. This compares to the national average of 29%.
Organisations Holding Conferences
Just under half of conferences (44%) in Yorkshire were organised by the corporate / for profit sector. A similar proportion were organised by government and the public sector (42%). Associations accounted for 14% of the reported market. This pattern was broadly the same as the UK.
Conference Size
The average conference size in Yorkshire was 49 delegates this was on a par with the national average (53 delegates).
Most conferences (62%) had 50 or less delegates.
Origin of Conference Business
Venues highlighted that, on average, the majority (68%) of their conference business was from Yorkshire. Nearly a third (30%) was from the rest of the UK, and 2% from overseas. This was similar to the UK average.
Business performance
60% of venues highlighted that business was up in 2006 over 2005.
A similar proportion anticipated that business would be up in 2007.
