UNIVERSITYOFLUGANO

FacultyofEconomics FacultyofCommunication MasterinInternationalTourism

Businesstravelandleisuretourism: leisurerelatedmotivationsof conferenceattendees

Masterdissertation

Author:NataliaTretyakevich Supervisor:ProfessorRicoMaggi Cosupervisor:LoredanaPadurean Submissiondate:15092010

Acknowledgements

Iwouldliketotakethechancetothankallthosepeoplewhowereofgreathelpandsupportedme duringthetimeofworkonmymasterthesis. Iamexpressingmydeepestloveandgratitudetomyparentsandmybrotherwhowerealwaysby mysidereadytoencourageorcalmmedownwhenneeded.WithoutyouIwouldneverbeableto achievewhatIhaveachieved! IamgratefultoprofessorRicoMaggiforhiscarefulsupervisionandrelevantadvice.Notasingle secondIregrettedaboutthechoiceofthetopictoworkonandasupervisortoguidemethrough thisprocess!Presentdissertationhasbeenwrittenonlythankstoourfruitfulwork. Swiss Federal Commission for Scholarship Holders provided me with an amazing opportunity to continuemyeducationatUniversityofLugano,thereforeIcantbutmentionitssupport. Iappreciatetheinputintopresentresearchofallintervieweeswhoparticipatedinmysurveyand providedmewithrelevantdataonthesubject. Andofcourse,Idliketosaythankyoutoallmyfriendswhosupportedmemorallyandassisted inpractice.Thisthesiswouldnotbeasitiswithoutallofyou.

TableofContents
Listoffigures.....................................................................................................................................................4 Listofabbreviations..........................................................................................................................................5 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................................6 Chapter1.Literaturereview.............................................................................................................................8 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. GeneraldefinitionofBusinesstravel................................................................................................8 InterconnectionsbetweenBusinesstravelandLeisuretourism....................................................12 Conferencetravel............................................................................................................................16 Demandandsupplysidemotivationsintheconferenceindustry.................................................22 Meetingplannersperspective................................................................................................23 Motivationsofconferenceattendeesandtheirdecisionmakingprocess.............................24

1.4.1. 1.4.2.

Chapter2.Researchonleisurerelatedinclinationsofconferenceattendees...............................................32 2.1. Methodology...................................................................................................................................32

2.1.1.Questionnairedesign ....................................................................................................................32 . 2.1.2.Characteristicsofthesampleanddataanalysis...........................................................................34 2.2.Studyresults.........................................................................................................................................35 2.2.1.Respondentprofile........................................................................................................................35 2.2.2.Analysisofleisurerelatedmotivationsofconferenceattendees.................................................36 2.2.3.Conferenceperformanceevaluationanditscomparisonwiththeattendeesmotivations........39 2.2.4.Personalinclinationsandbehavioralcharacteristicsofconferenceattendees............................46 Conclusions......................................................................................................................................................58 LimitationsandFutureresearch......................................................................................................................61 Bibliography.....................................................................................................................................................62 Appendices......................................................................................................................................................66

Listoffigures

Figure1.Formsofbusinesstravel.Davidson,Cope,2003. Figure2.Thefunctionalityofinternationalbusinesstravel.WelchandWorm,2005. Figure 3. Interrelationship between the principal players in conference tourism market. Oppermann,1996. Figure4.Underlyingdimensionsofconferenceattendeemotivationsfromexistingliterature.Mair, Thompson,2009. Figure 5. Modified model of the conference participation decisionmaking process. Zhang et al., 2007. Figure6.Extrapolationofleisurerelatedattributesoutof studieson decisionmakingprocessof conferenceattendees. Figure7.Respondentprofileaccordingtothecountryofresidence. Figure 8. Means and standard deviations of leisurerelated motivation factors for conference attendance. Figure9.RotatedComponentMatrixforindividualmotivationsofconferenceattendees. Figure10.Evaluationoftheconferenceperformance. Figure11.Comparisonofdescriptorsofindividualmotivationsandconferenceperformance. Figure 12. Coalignment between leisurerelated motivations of conference attendees and conferenceperformance. Figure13.Comparisonofmeansofmotivationsandperformancebymeansofttest. Figure14.RotatedComponentMatrixforconferenceperformanceevaluation. Figure15.Listofleisurerelatedactivitiespopularamongconferenceattendees Figure16.Sampledistributionaccordingtocountryofresidence. Figure 17. Distribution of the sample according to nationalities: Belorussians, Swiss, Americans, Italians. Figure18.Importanceofleisureactivitiesfordifferentnationalities. Figure 19. Respondents distribution with regards to cultural leisure activities: guided tours, museums,culturalactivitiesandevents. Figure20.Leisurerelateditemstakentoconferencesbytheattendees. Figure21.Leisurerelateditemsbroughthomefromconferencesbytheattendees. Figure22.Destinationresearchinclinationsofconferenceattendees.

Listofabbreviations

ASAEAmericanSocietyofAssociationExecutives BTBBusinessTourismBriefing DNADeoxyribonucleicacid ICCAInternationalCongressandConventionAssociation KMOKaiserMeyerOlkinmeasureofsamplingadequacy MICEMeetings,Incentives,Conferences,Events PASWPredictiveAnalyticsSoftWare PCAPrincipalComponentAnalysis UNESCOUnitedNationsEducational,ScientificandCulturalOrganization UNOUnitedNationsOrganization UNWTOUnitedNationsWorldTourismOrganization WHOWorldHealthOrganization

Introduction

Beingapartoftourismindustrybusinesstravelisaratherspecificfieldwhichhasnotbeendeeply exploredbyliterature.Nevertheless,ithasbeendevelopingatahighspeedintherecentdecade andpresentlyaccountsforasignificantpartofthetotaltravelmarket.Therefore,thereisaneed forthoroughinvestigationofbusinesstravel.Itcomprisesvarioustypesoftravelwhichforeseea wide range of activities, and one of the broadest ones is conference, congress and convention travel. Therapidgrowthandhighprofitabilityoftheconferenceindustrystimulatedattemptsfromthe sideofdestinationsandconventionbureaustoattracthighernumbersofvisitors.Therefore,itis of great importance to identify the main factors influencing the decisionmaking process of the delegateswhentheychooseaconferencetoattend,asitisnotonlyamatterofscientificresearch butcanalsobringconsiderablebenefitstotheindustry. Beinganessentialfieldofbusinesstravelconventionandmeetingtourismremainsquiteanunder investigatedtopic.Anextensiveliteraturereviewidentifiedgenerallyahighnumberofstudiesof conference business travel which are related to destination image, while just a few researchers exploredconventionsegmentwithregardstoattendeespreferencesandinterests.Despitethe economic significance of the conference sector relatively little academic research has been conductedinthefieldofmotivationsofconferenceattendees(Oppermann,1996). Nowadays, given the conditions of tough competition on the conference market, it is crucial to evaluate conferences not only from the point of view of professional utility and networking opportunitiesavailablefordelegatesbuttotakeintoaccountotherfactorsinfluencingattendees decisionmakingprocess.Moreover,itisimportanttodistinguishbetweencompetingassociations and rival destinations, since attractive locations, as well as associations themselves and the conference program provided by them determine the choice of potential convention delegates. Individualmotivations,especiallythosewhicharenotdirectlyconnectedtotheprofessionalgoals and objectives but nevertheless have a high influence on the final decision, are gaining higher importance.Withregardtothis,leisureprogramsprovidedbymeetingorganizerstogetherwith extra conference recreational activities offered by destinations represent a curious field for investigationplayinganimportantroleindefiningbusinesstravelersbehavioralpatterns.
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Asaresult,anincreasingsignificanceoftheconferencesectorundertheconditionofmissingdeep scientificinvestigationsofthetopicprovidesvastopportunitiesforfutureresearch.Animportant field which undeservedly lacks scientific attention is directly related to leisurerelated factors influencingthechoiceoftheconferenceattendeesandthedegreetowhichrecreationalactivities areimportantforpotentialconferenceattendees. Presentresearchmakesacontributiontothealreadyexistingexplorationsofanoveralldecision making process of potential conference delegates and meanwhile focuses on leisurerelated factors which under the condition of tough competition in the conference industry are gaining higher importance. At the same time, it seeks to spur a light on personal preferences and behavioralcharacteristicsofbusinesstravelers. Theobjectivesofthisresearchare: 1. Toexplorethefieldofbusinesstravelrelatedtoprofessionalassociationsconferencesand conventions and find out general reasons which make convention attendees take their decisionsinfavorofcertainassociationconferences,aswellasdestinations; 2. To identify leisurerelated motivations of conference delegates and build connections betweenbusinesstravelersbehavioratconferencesandavailableleisureandrecreational activitiesofferedboth,byconferenceorganizersanddestinations. The first chapter of the research is devoted to general literature review of the topic. It gives an insightintobusinesstravelingeneralandconferenceandconventiontravelinparticular.Further on, it focuses on decisionmaking process of conference participants and identifies leisure motivations of business travelers. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical study of the topicconductedinaformofaselfreportedquestionnairewhichgivespracticalevidencetothe significanceofleisureactivitiesforconferenceattendees. Theresultsoftheresearchaddtotheexistingliteraturebroadeningtheaspectofleisurerelated motivations of business travelers and can be used by convention bureaus and conference organizers,aswellasbybusinesstravelmanagers,inordertoimproveexperienceofconference attendees, and, hence, to add value to their business maximizing the number of delegates and increasingtheirprofits.

Chapter1.Literaturereview

1.1.

GeneraldefinitionofBusinesstravel

Thoughhavingreceivedrelativelylittlescholarlyattention,businesstravelhasrecentlygainedan importanceasasectordevelopingatahighpace.Asaformofmobility,internationalbusiness travel is a familiar practice experienced by more and more workers in the twentyfirst century (Wooton,Stevens,1995). Generally, business travel is defined as workrelated travel to an irregular place of work (Aguilera, 2008). This definition being quite general nevertheless captures the essence of the phenomenonandillustratesthemajorfunctionofbusinesstravel.Itcoversvariousactivitiesand excludescommutingtoworkandregulartripsofbusinessmenwithintheirlocalsurrounding,thus stressingaspatialaspect.However,itdoesnotclearlydefinethetimeframeofbusinesstravel,it canrefertodifferentbusinessjourneysfromthesamedaytripstolongvisits.Atthesametime, UNWTOsetsthelimitsoftourismwithinthebordersof1overnightstayand1year. Businesstravelhasbeengrowingatahighspeedforthelast30years(Wooton,Stevens,1995). Thus,between1982and2007thetotalamountofbusinesstravelersintheUKwhichareinvolved inoutwardbusinesstripshasincreasedby277%havingreached9,018million(Beaverstocketal., 2009). Despite the recent economic downturn there still can be witnessed a continuous proliferationofbusinessjourneysprovidedbytherequirementsofthemarket(Faulconbridgeet al.,2009). All types of business travel deserve thorough consideration since this segment of travelers has higherspendingperpersontocomparewithleisuretourism.Itisalltheyearroundtypeofactivity which can bring people to destinations in the offpeak season. In many destinations business travelrepresentsthemajorformoftourismandisakeymarketforhotelsandairlines.Inaddition, businesstravelersusespecialfacilities,suchasconventioncentres,andarebeingservedbytheir ownsuppliers(Swarbrook,Horner,2001). Thereexistvariousclassificationsofbusinesstravelwhichemphasizedifferentattributes.Oneof the most common is the approach presented by Davidson and Cope, 2003 who suggest subdividingallbusinesstravelintotwomaintypes:individualbusinesstravelandbusinesstourism (Figure 1). The group of Individual business travel comprises all sorts of trips undertaken by

businesstravelersforpresentations,consultations,investigations,aswellasonetoonemeetings. Inthiscasebusinesstravelcanbearegularfeatureoftheiremployment. Individualbusinesstravel Business tourism Meetings presentations, consultations, investigations, onetoone meetings conferences, training seminars, product launches, annual generalmeetingsheldbycompaniesorassociations tradefairs,tradeshows,consumershows individual,team,familytrips

Exhibitions Incentivetrips Corporate spectatorandparticipativehospitality hospitality Figure1.Formsofbusinesstravel.Davidson,Cope,2003.

Business tourism foresees such forms as Meetings, Exhibitions, Incentive trips and Corporate hospitality. Meetings include a very wide range of activities, from conferences and trainings to generalmeetingofcompanies,whilethesubgroupofExhibitionsdealswithtradeshowsandfairs. Incentive travel depicts those trips which are undertaken as a reward from employers for good performance. The last type identified by the authors describes Corporate Hospitality which comprises luxury entertainments provided by companies for their valuable clients or staff. IncentivetripsandCorporatehospitalitybelongtoleisurerelatedsegmentsofbusinesstravel. According to this classification, conferences and congresses undergo the category of meetings. However,thesegmentofbusiness travelersundertakingtheirtripsspecificallywiththelearning purpose has been identified by many researchers as a separate group with its distinct features (SwarbrookandHorner,2001;Beaverstock,2009). AccordingtothetypologysuggestedbyWelchandWorm,2005businesstravelencompassesall travelactivitiesundertakenwiththepurposeofinterfirmandintrafirmcommunication,aswell as meeting with external stakeholders, such as governmental bodies and nongovernmental organizationsorconductedwiththelearningpurpose(Figure2).

 Figure2.Thefunctionalityofinternationalbusinesstravel.WelchandWorm,2005. Learningrepresentsthetypeofbusinesstravelwhichcoverssuchactivitiesasvisitingconferences, conventions,congresses,trainingcoursesandtradefairs(Beaverstocketal.,2009). WithregardtobusinesstravelprerequisitesAguilera,2008identifiesseveralmainreasonswhich can explain a growing need for business travel among which there can be named a wide development of multiunit companies which require internal communication, possess higher demandforprojectteamcooperationandinternalizationoftherelationshipbetweenclientand market. However, facetoface contacting in business relationship explains just one side of the businesstravelphenomenon.Anothernecessityofthemarkettodayisagrowingneedforlearning andconstantdevelopmentwhichissatisfiedbymeansofattendingconferences,congressesand courses. According to the regional market research conducted in Great Britain, Norway and Sweden convention and conference tourism in these countries represents at least one fifth of the total business travel market. This parameter increases with the distance: from 17% of domestic businesstripsto22%ofthelonghaulinternationalbusinesstripsareconductedwiththepurpose of attending a conference or a congress (Aguilera, 2008). Regularly, under the condition of multiple time and budget constraints, the closer the distance of a business trip, the higher the chancetotravel.Thepresentedabovefiguresillustratethatforconferencesitisnotatypicalcase, since the share of international conferences in the total amount of business trips is higher to compare with domestic ones. Consequently, it is not only business which attracts business travelers; there should be other motivations which make business travelers to undertake a journey. Representingeducationalanddevelopmentopportunitiesforbusinesstravelersconferencesector hasbeendevelopingevenatahigherspeedthanallthebusinesstravelingeneralandoverthe
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last two decades its numbers and influence have grown considerably (Wootton and Stevens, 1995). Therefore, the segment of conferences, congresses and conventions was chosen as a subjectforpresentresearch.

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1.2.

InterconnectionsbetweenBusinesstravelandLeisuretourism

Business travel has its distinct characteristics and motivations which make it different from tourisminitsclassicmeaning.However,possessingconsiderablepeculiarities,businesstravelhas strong connections with leisure tourism. It is important to mention that even though business travelandleisuretourismhavedifferentnature,therecanbefoundlotsofsimilaritiesbetween thembothfromthedemandandfromthesupplysideperspective. Business travel strongly complements leisure travel since both of them rely on the same infrastructureandfacilities.Investmentsininfrastructureforbusinesstravel,e.g.transportation and accommodation facilities for business travelers, are highly beneficial for leisure tourists and localpopulationsincebusinesstravelersusethesamehotelsandrestaurants,aswellastosome extenttakepartinleisureandrecreationalactivities. TheconceptsofbusinesstravelandleisuretourismcanbeexaminedwithintheframeworkofGet there Stay there Live there model (Croce,Maggi, 2005). Modes of transportation of business travelers and leisure tourists are mostly the same, therefore Get there phase possesses certain similarities for these two categories. During Stay there phase which implies satisfaction of basic needs of travelers and utilizes means of accommodation and eating facilities business travelers also tend to intermix. For instance, leisure tourists coming for short city breaks to big cities can stay in the same centrally located hotels as business travelers often do, as well as businessmen comingforconferencestolargeseasideresortsmakeuseofpurelyleisurehotelsfortheirbusiness purposes.MostconsiderabledisparitiesareidentifiedinthephaseofLivetherewhichincludesall the activities of tourists at the destination. For leisure tourists this stage encompasses a wide rangeofthingstodo,fromtakingguidedtoursatthedestinationtovisitingmuseums,attending performancesandgoingshopping.Forbusinesstravelersthelistofactivitiesisusuallymuchmore limitedandrarelyincludesleisurerelatedones.However,sometypesofbusinesstravelershave deeperinvolvementintotheleisuresideoflifeatthedestinationthantheothers.Thus,incentive travelandcorporatehospitalityarepurelyleisurerelated,whileconferencesalsocanforeseejust someelementsofrecreationalactivities. Atthesametime,businesstravelersmakeuseofspecificinfrastructureintheformofconvention centersandexhibitionvenueswhicharedesignedexclusivelywithbusinesspurposesandarenot utilizedbyleisuretravelers.

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Iftoconsiderthedemandside,therecanbeidentifiedafewwaysofoverlappingofbusinessand leisuretravel(Swarbrooke,Horner,2001): 1. Once a working day is over business traveler becomes a leisure tourist. As Davidson mentioned,Leavingasidethehoursspentconferencing,negotiating,andgenerallygetting the job done, most business travelers, delegates and visitors to trade shows find themselves with time to spare in the places they are visiting. The degree of their involvementinleisuredependsonpersonalcharacteristicsandpreferencesandsituational variables, but in most cases at new destinations business travelers seek to expand their experiencebymeansofparticipatinginlocalrecreationalactivities,makinguseofavailable sightseeing options, taking part in local events and getting acquainted with culture and people; 2. When attending conferences and conventions business travelers are often provided with anelaboratedlistofleisureactivitiesincludedintheconferenceprogram.Occasionallypre /postconferencetoursareorganizedfordelegates,especiallyiftheconferencehasabig numberofattendeesandaninternationalscale; 3. Sometimesbusinesstravelerstaketheirspouses/partners/familywhentheyaregoingon business trips. In this case these people devote all their time to leisure activities and businesstravelersintheirturnundertakerecreationalactivitiesmoreoften; 4. Conferenceattendeesfrequentlyprolongtheirtimeatthedestinationstayingafewdays longerforleisureactivitiesbeforeoraftertheconferenceitself(Davidson,Cope,2003); 5. Incentive travel is a leisure reward for good performance. It belongs to leisure activity though is often combined with the trips undertaken on business purposes. In fact, this newly emerged segment often combines companys employees travel to a congress or conferencewithsomeformofrecreation(Owen,1992); 6. Business travelers tend to return to the destination which they liked when traveling on business.Accordingtoresearchundertakeninthisfield,around40%ofbusinesstravelers tendtoreturntothedestinationwhichtheyhaveenjoyedwhenbeingonabusinesstrip (BTB, 2007). Moreover, they spread their reviews, both positive and negative, what can eitherenhancetheimageofthedestinationorconsiderablydamageit. Thequestionhowbusinesstravelersdoincorporateleisureexperiencesintheirbusinesstripsis extremely curious for scientific investigation. A number of studies have been conducted in this
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interdisciplinary field with the purpose of to identify the connections and interdependencies betweenleisureandbusinesstourism. According to the hierarchy of life satisfaction model, ones overall satisfaction is determined by major life spheres, including work, leisure, health and family, as well as components of each of these domains (Long et al., 2003). Gilbert and Morris, 1995 indicated that a wellsatisfied employee is able to function more productively. Therefore, it is important to provide business travelerswithawellestablishedreasonableschedulewhentheyareonbusinesstripssothatthey havesometimeforthemselvesandforrelaxationactivities.Twogroupsofbusinesstravelerswere identifiedbyGilbertandMorris:foroneofthemselfesteemfactorsweremoreimportant,while for another group time available for leisure played a significant role in their overall satisfaction from their trip. The time available for leisure is perceived as a chance to relax; that is why travelersbelongingtothesecondgroupidentifiedastheirkeypriorityhavingfreetimeavailable for experiencing different cultures, new food, meeting local people and visiting sights of the destination. TheEgenciastudyexploringtheDNAofthebusinesstraveleroftoday(2008)hasalsoprovedthat corporate travelers not only are motivated by professional reasons when undertaking business trips; they are meanwhile curios travelers who want to enjoy extra opportunities of the destination as much as possible. And it is the industry that needs to provide them with the possibilities they are looking for. Two thirds of the survey respondents enjoyed their business trips, while 85% reported that travelling is the main reason why they like their job. 40% of the samplewasrepresentedbyexperiencehungrytravelerswhowerelookingforhavingasmuch freetimeavailableduringtheirbusinesstripsaspossible,sothattheycouldhaveanopportunity to enjoy the destination and to experience leisure activities. Thus, a considerable group of businesstravelersdemonstratedstronginclinationstoundertakeleisureactivities. At the same time, Ricci and Holland, 1992 claimed that Most people are aware of abundant leisure opportunities, yet have limited time and money to pursue them. Time constraint is relevantespeciallyforthemanagementpersonnelwhooftensuffersfromtheabsenceofworklife balance.WithregardstothisSnepengerandMiller,2010examineddemographicandsituational correlates of business travelers of different levels of occupations, age, gender, etc. having concentrated on the question whether travelers tend to combine business with pleasure. The authors claim that despite the fact that business travelers often dont have a chance to choose theirdestination,theystillhaverelevantfreedomofchoicewheretostay,howtoeatandwhich
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activitiestoundertakeintheirfreetime.Generally,thispointofviewdoesnotcoincidewiththe commonlyappliedapproachtowardsthefreedomofchoiceofconferenceattendeeswhotendto choose between bothassociations and locations. Nevertheless, certain discretion with regard to leisureactivitiesispointedoutbytheresearchers.Theyidentifytwogroupsofworkerscomingto Alaskablueandwhitecollars,bothofthemtendingtocombinebusinesswithpleasureatthe destination.Nothavingstricttimeconstraintbluecollarsprefertostaylongerandtoundertake some leisure activities on their own, while white collars generally come for meetings and conventions, stay shorter, but nevertheless often participate in recreational activities either undertakenontheirownororganizedbymeetingplanners. In addition to this, the theory of structural autonomy from the leisure perspective was investigated by Noe, 2009 who analyzed behavioral patterns of executives and lowerlevel employees. An extensive literature review on the relationship between autonomous nonwork activitiesoutsidetheindustrialorganizationandtheexecutiveandbluecollarrolesstatesthatthe white collar workers possess more leisure activities when being at work, while the blue collars enjoy their leisure outside their regular professional surrounding what mainly supports the researchofSnepengerandMiller.Forwhitecollarsingeneralthedistinctionbetweenworkand leisure is blurred since many recreational activities are practiced in the work situation. The implication which can de derived from the study with regard to the present research is the following: since association conferences and conventions are mostly visited by upper level employeeswhoduetothetimeconstrainttendtointermixtheirprofessionallifewithrecreational activities, leisure inclinations of the business travelers constitute a rather important field for explorationwhichwasundeservedlyunderestimatedinthepast. So, undoubtedly literature identifies existing connections between business and leisure tourism the evidences of which are going to be observed and analyzed in the present research with a specificfocusonaconferenceandconventionsegmentofbusinesstravel.

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1.3.

Conferencetravel

Conferencetourismisafieldofbusinesstravelwhichhasbeendevelopingverydynamicallyinthe last decade. A congress, convention, or conference is a regular formalized meeting of an associationorbody,orameetingsponsoredbyanassociationorbodyonaregularoradhocbasis (Lawsona,1980). AccordingtothedefinitiongivenbyBusinessTourismBriefing,2007,theassociationconference market, where the terms convention and congress are frequently used to describe major events, brings together members with common professional, scientific or social interests. The termconventioniswidelyappliedintheUS,whileconferenceandcongressaremorecommon for Europe. The alternative term which comprises all these events is MICE which stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. This broad definition includes different activities. Presentresearchfocusesonconferenceandconventionsegmentandthesetwo termsareused interchangeably. They denote an event that includes educational programming, networking activities,andsometimesanexhibition.Consequently,conferenceandconventionattendeesare thoseparticipantswhoregisterforeducationalandnetworkingopportunitiesandgainanaccess totheexhibitfloor(Severtetal.,2007). Mainobjectivesofbusinesstravelerswhenattendingconferencesaretohaveanopportunityto share the latest information from the industry, to get updated on the news and events, thus to developprofessionally,aswellastomeetcolleaguesandtocommunicatewiththesameindustry professionals sharing common interests. Medical congresses often represent continuing professionaldevelopmentprogram,whileacademicinstitutionssendresearcherstoconferences forgainingpublicityandfindingsponsorshipopportunities(BusinessTourismBriefing,2007). Conference and convention tourism is one of the fastest developing segments of the business travelindustrywhichcurrentlyrepresentsmorethan30%ofallbusinesstripsandinvolves48%of allbusinesstravelers(Oppermann,1996). TheInternationalCongressandConventionAssociationidentified8,294eventswhichtookplacein 2009,800eventsmorethanwereidentifiedtheyearbefore.Withsuchanabundanceofevents worldwide competition for attendees is increasing, therefore it is of great importance for both convention organizers and host locations to have a clear vision of the factors influencing attendeesdecisiontovisitanevent.
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Moreover,accordingtothesurveyofMeetingsandConventionMagazine,in2003theconvention industry alone generated over $16 billion in spending attracting over 12,5 million people (Ford, Pepeer, 2007). Travel and entertainment represents the second largest expense for many corporationsafterthesalary(Davidson,Cope,2003). Previousresearchconductedonalargenumberofconferencesandconventionlocationsproves that business travelers expenditures per visit by conference attendees are much higher than those of any other type of tourists. In Mexico, for example, conference and convention visitors constituteonly3.3%oftotalnumberoftouristsbuttheyaccountfor9%ofalltourismrevenues.In Europeandestinationthesituationissimilar.Hereconferenceattendeesspend32%morepervisit tocomparewithallvisitors(Lawsonb,1982).So,conferenceattendeesusuallyspendmorethan regular leisure tourists. Moreover, they often stay longer thus bringing manifold economic benefitstodestinations. Anotherimportantbenefitofconferencesissupportedbythefactthattheyareabletorevitalize destinationsinoffpeakseasonwhenthedemandfromthesideofleisuretravelersisquitelow.In addition, Abbey and Link, 1994 stated that: group business is an excellent builder for repeat business. Through conventions a large number of potential repeat visitors become acquainted withatourismarea.Iftheyaretreatedwellandarepleased,theywillnotonlyadvertisewiththe wordofmouth,butwillalsolikelyvisittheareaonotheroccasions.(Oppermann,1996) To say more, host locations benefit from having spouses of business travelers who may accompanytheirpartners(Edelstein,Bennini,1994).Thatiswhyhostlocationsshouldbehighly interested in providing extensive leisure facilities in order to have an additional stream of revenues(OppermanandChon,1997). Iftoaddressgeneralclassificationoftheindustry,itisessentialtomentionthedifferencebetween two segments of the conference industry corporate meetings and association meetings. Associationconferencesarethosebasedaroundorganizedandstructuredgroupsofpeoplewho havesimilarinterestsandareanincreasinglyimportantmarketfortourismdestinations(Mairand Thompson,2009),whilecorporatearethoseusuallyorganizedbycompaniesfortheiremployees. In this research the emphasis is made on association meetings which constitute larger part and canbedistinguishedbyfreedomofchoiceoftheattendees,whilecorporatemeetingareusually arequirementforemployees(Oppermann,1996).Thisfreedomofchoicemakestheassociation segment quite peculiar and curious for researchers as their travel patterns and buying behavior arepotentiallyinfluencedbytheirperceptionofthedestination,conferenceorganizers,theirown
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needs and desires, and financial and other factors. Thus, there is a broader possibility for investigationofpersonalmotivationsandbehavioralpatternsofbusinesstravelerswithregardto theirdecisionmakingprocess. Internationalassociationmeetings,anemphasizeonwhichismadeinthepresentresearch,can besubdividedintotwomaingroups: regular programs with numerous meetings peryear, a high proportion of which are held near the headquarters or regional offices of organizations. This includes the conferences arranged by various international organizations (UN, UNESCO, WHO) and by societies. ThesemeetingsusuallytakeplaceinVienna,Geneva,NewYork,Rome. fullmembershipmeetingswhichareheldeachyearoratperiodicintervals(e.g.everyone, two,orfouryears).Conferencesofthistypetendedtobelargerinsizeandmorewidely distributed(Lawsona,1980). Thecategorycoveredbypresentresearchisthelastonesinceitgivesbetterpossibilitytoexamine leisuremotivationsofbusinesstravelersregardlesscertainlocation.Davidsoncallsthesetypesof eventsfloatingmeaningthatthedestinationofsucheventsisflexibleandvarieseveryyear. The segment of association meetings comprises a wide variety of organizationmembers, from professional and scientific, to governmental and social. Roger identifies professional and trade associationsmembersofwhicharefacilitatedtoparticipatebytheiremployment,voluntaryones createdonthebasisofthememberspersonalinterests,tradeunions,politicalparties,religious organizations,charities.Thetypesofconferenceswhichareconsideredtobethemostappealing intermsofrevenuesandattendancearethoseinitiatedbypharmaceutical,medicalorscientific associations.TelecommunicationsandITindustriesconferences,beingquitepopularinthepast, haverecentlydecreasedthevolumeofconferencesheldduetoeconomicreasonsandchangesin theindustryitself(BTB,2007). Inthisresearchstressismadeonthegroupofparticipantswhojoinprofessionalassociationsand consequently attend organized conferences because of their employment. Their leisure inclinationsmaybestrongerthanforothergroups.Nevertheless,theresultsmaybealsoapplied to other types of association conferences attendees sinceall of them possess lots of similarities withregardstotheirbuyingprocessandthemotivesinfluencingthedemand. AccordingtothedataprovidedbytheUnionofInternationalAssociationstherearecirca25000 associations registered in the world. However, out of those just 9 000 meet regularly and on a

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rotationbasis,thereforethisfigureshouldbetakenasanorienteer(BTB,2007).Thisinformation correspondswiththeoneprovidedbyICCAmeasuringasimilarnumberofassociations. In addition to the above mentioned classifications, the associations can be differentiated accordingtotheirsizeandmembership,regionalorinternationalscopeandnumberofmeetings organizedregularly.Theseassociationmeetingsandeventsarenormallyusedasamainsourceof revenues generated in order to support functioning of the association headquarters, as well as providefinancialsupportfortheresearch,differentcampaignsandspecializedprograms. Withregardtotheduration,meetingsandconferencesmaylastfrom1to7daysorevenlonger butmostofthemarethreedayevents(Lawsona,1980). Generally,thelengthofstayatconferenceshasbeenshowntodependonmanyfactors: theoriginsofthedelegateswithregardstorelativedistanceandeconomicstatus, availabilityofpreorpostconferencetours, topicandstructureoftheconference, venuelongermeetingsbeingheldinuniversitiesandsimilarestablishments.(Lawsona, 1980) Nowadays there can be witnessed a clear tendency towards shortening length of stay at a conference and traveling to closer destinations. This can be explained by a number of reasons among which there can be identified costcutting measures due to economic downturn, high concernsaboutsafetyandsecurityandrisingawarenessofcorporatesocialresponsibilityinthe presentdaybusinessworld. Internationalassociationscanorganizetheirmeetingsallovertheworld,buttheyusuallychoose theirvenuesontherotationbasis,oftenmovingfromyeartoyearfromEuropetoNorthAmerica and then to Asia/Pacific region (BTB, 2007). According to studies conducted on the optimum conferencedestinations the best locations for this type of events are the capital and gateway citieswithgoodaccessibilitybyairandbyroadandwithalargemarketcatchmentarea.Seaside andinlandresortscanbealsoagoodmeansofextendingthetouristseason(Lawsonb,1982). International Congress and Convention Associations global research found out that the world leadingconferencedestinationsincludesuchcitiesasVienna,Barcelona,Paris,Berlin,Singapore, Copenhagen,Stockholm,Amsterdam,LisbonandBeijing.Thisrankingcoversassociationmeetings andcongresseswhichtakeplaceonaregularbasisandrotatebetweenatleastthreecountries. Remarkably,thetop10includestwononEuropeandestinations,BeijingandSingapore,whichcan

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be partially explained by welldeveloped infrastructure and improving business image of that region. Iftoanalyzegeneraldevelopmentofinternationalassociationmeetingsmarketintheyears1999 2008 there can be observed new destinations entering top20 list of the association meetings locations.StockholmandSeoul,aswellasBarcelonahaveincreasedconsiderablythenumberof meetingsheld;IstanbulandBangkokwerealsodoingwell,whileAthens,BuenosAires,SaoPaulo and Tokyo were newcomers on the list. If to consider the number of meetings per country, the USAandGermany,thelonglastingleaders,werefollowedbySpainandFrancewhichpossesseda considerableincreaseinthenumberofmeetings.Apartfromwelldevelopedinfrastructure,allthe leadingdestinationshaveacommonfeaturewhichisgoodaccessibility.Moreover,wecanwitness thatsouthernlocationstendtobecomemorepopularintherecentdecade. In2009theUSAwasagainthefirstcountryintherankingaccordingtothenumberofmeetings. 595eventswerehostedthere.InthecountryhistoricallyDetroitisconsideredtobethefirstwell established successful destination for congresses and conventions starting from the end of the 19th century. Already at that time leisurerelated components influencing inclinations of conferenceattendeestogotocertaindestinationwereacknowledgedbytheDetroitConvention and Businessmens League responsible for its promotion, and Detroit was advertised as the prettiestcityinthecountryanditsinhabitantsaspeoplewhoviewithoneanothertoentertain the stranger within its gates (Ford, Peeper, 2007). So, we can witness that from the very beginning of the industrys existence leisure component of business travel was of great importance. Nowadaystheconferencemarkethasbecomeextremelycompetitive.TheEuropeanFederationof ConferenceTownsMarketingDirectorGeoffreySmithwrote:Meetingplannerstodayaremore educated about the market, eager to get more for their money, aware that most things are negotiable, and more demanding than ever (Davidson, 2003). As a means of optimizing attendance, conference organizers and convention bureaus should aim at creating such a conventionpackagethatwillsatisfytheparticipants. The key motive for travel to conferences is surely the desire of attendees to participate in the eventitself,butthismaybejustapartialmotivation.Themainreasoncanbefirmlysupportedby theparticipantsleisureinterests,includingextendedconferenceleisureprogramoravailabilityof freetime.Theconventionpackagemayincludenotonlyairplaneticket,accommodationandcar rentalservices,butaccesstospecialevents,recreationalfacilities,socialprogramthatwillfoster
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networking between delegates, and pre and post conference tours (Hiller, 1995). Numerous culturaleventsareusuallyscheduledduringconferenceswhichgivetheattendeesopportunityto relaxandtonetworkatthesametime.Thisisthewaywhich,accordingtoDavidson,increasesthe levelofleisureactivitiesconsumedatthedestinationbymeansofengagingbusinesstravelersinto sightseeing,culturalevents,shopping,etc. For this research all types of leisure activities practiced by conference delegates are of considerableinterest,sincetheiravailabilitymayinfluenceattendeeschoiceinfavorofacertain conference.

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1.4.

Demandandsupplysidemotivationsintheconferenceindustry

The topic of conference and convention tourism does not have very deep roots in scientific literature,similarlytobusinesstravel.Ithasattractedresearchersattentionquiterecentlyandat themomenttherearestillconsiderablegapsinitsexplorationanddevelopment.Somefieldsare coveredmoreextensively,whileothersdeserveamuchbetterinsight. There have been identified three main players in the convention tourism industry: associations, hostlocationsandattendees(OppermanandChon,1997).Themainobjectiveofthehostlocation aswellasoftheorganizingassociationistoattractasmanydelegatesaspossible,sotheyfunction in close collaboration with each other towards the same goal. Figure 3 presents the interrelationshipbetweenthesethreeparties.

Association

Attendees

Host location

Figure 3. Interrelationship between the principal players in conference tourism market. Oppermann,1996. Firstofall,attheinitialstagethereiscompetitionbetweenhostlocationswhichaimatattracting associations organizing conferences. Destinations provide conference organizers with certain locationimageandpromoteinfrastructureandavailablefacilities;associationsintheirturnafter havingtakenadecisioninfavorofacertainlocationmaketheirinputprovidingacertainnumber of participants and renting available conference facilities and food and beverage services. With regardtoconferenceattendeeshostlocationprovidesconventionvisitorswithanopportunityto seeanewplace,aswellaspromotesitsimagetopotentialparticipantssinceinmanycasesitis them whose preference is taken into consideration by organizing associations. Apart from professional and administrative interactions and general marketing activities, there is also the category of leisure activities belonging to those connections which tighten the link between conferenceattendeesandhostlocation.
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While host location provides delegates with certain image, giving them a possibility to visit new placesandoffersenjoymentopportunities,participantsintheirturndonotonlycontributetothe destinations development with their expenditures on accommodation, transportation and recreationbutalsosetthebasisforpotentialfuturevisitsundertheconditionoftheirsatisfaction with the destination. Tight connections exist also between associations and attendees. Associations promote to potential attendees both the convention itself and its location and provide opportunities for professional development and social interactions of delegates, while participantspayregistrationfeestoassociations,thussupportingthemfinancially. All the connections between destinations, associations and attendees are rather complex and include measurable links (e.g. number of attendees) and those which are difficult to measure (suchaslocationimage).Butasamatterofafact,destinationfacilitiesandserviceprovidedare crucialforthesuccessofthedestinationintermsofconventiontourism(Breiter,Millman,2006). A great amount of literature depicts the topic of motivations and factors influencing decision makingprocessfromthesupplyside,namelyfromtheperspectiveofmeetingorganizersandhost locations. Such questions as site selection choice (Clark, McCleary, 1994; Oppermann, 1994; Rittichainuwat et al, 2001) and convention destination locations and their image (Baloglu, Love, 2001; Oppermann, 1996) have been already investigated in details, while analysis of the attendeesmotivationsandtheirdecisionmakingprocessstillneedsdeeperelaboration. 1.4.1. Meetingplannersperspective A few recent studies of the topic from the meetingplanners perspective concentrate on conventiondestinationimagesandevaluatemajordestinationattributesprovidedbyconference organizers. Following Oppermann, the association tourism sector resembles to a large extent the pleasure tourism sector, especially with regards to participation and destination selection choice. That is whyforpotentialattendeesthequestiontoattendaconferenceornotisdeterminednotonlyby cost and time factors and by professional motives of the delegates, but to a great extent by attractivenessofthedestination.Therefore,thereareanumberoffactorswhichareconsidered to be taken into thorough consideration by meetingplanners when evaluating destinations image.Itisofhighsignificanceforanindustrytoknowpreciselywhichfactorsinfluencethechoice oftheplacesinceassociationsarerelativelyflexiblewithregardstochoosingthedestination.So,
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the studies mentioned below concentrate on the conferenceorganizers motivations when choosingaproperdestinationforaconference. Weber, 2000, and HyeRin, McKrecher, Kim, 2009 investigated the process of conference site selectionfromperspectiveofassociations.TheorganizationalbuyingtheorywasappliedbyClark, McCleary,1995,tobuyingprocessforcorporatemeetingsanditwasfoundoutthatnotonlytask related variables but also situational ones, including determining of players influencing site selection, types of risks, power roles may have a great impact on the final result. Thus, all the groupofvariousfactorsshouldbetakenintoaccountwhenselectinglocationfortheconference. TheresearchofOppermann,1996,aswellasthepreviousstudiesofFortinetal.,1976;Edelstein andBenini,1994;ASAEwhichalsoexploredmeetinglocationattributes,provesthatrecreational facilitiesofthedestinationarehighlysignificantformeetingplannerschoice.Fortintalksabout hospitality and local interest; Edelstein and Benini distinguish destination image, recreational facilities and tourist attractions; ASAE points out entertainment/dining, location image, climate andrecreationalfacilities.Inadditiontothesefactors,Oppermannhasfoundattractivelocation, cityimage,weather,sceneryandsightseeingopportunities,nightlife,andrestaurantfacilitiestobe of considerable importance as destinations attributes. These are all factors of an overall destination perception which influence in the first term decisionmaking process of attendees, consequentlythemeetingplanners. AstudyoffiveconventiondestinationsintheUSwithafocusonthecitiesimageandthewayitis perceived by association meeting planners was conducted by Baloglu, Love, 2004. Here the emphasis was done on the meeting organizers side and 21 attributes were examined while analyzing their selection criteria for convention sites. They identified extraconference opportunities to be crucial since together with basic attributes of accessibility, accommodation, services and attendees individual preferences they explained the destination choice of conferenceorganizers. 1.4.2. Motivationsofconferenceattendeesandtheirdecisionmakingprocess Recent competition among convention destinations and venues has highlighted the need for better understanding of the convention and conference attendee behavior, including their decisionmakingprocessandtheirevaluationoftheconventionexperience(Severtetal.,2007). Oppermannclaimedthatdespiteitseconomicsignificancerelativelylittleacademicresearchhas beenconductedinthefieldofmotivationsofconferenceattendees.Moreover,Severtidentifies
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the need for deeper research in the sphere since that could help practitioners and conference organizers to gain better understanding of the decisionmaking process applied to convention delegates. Mair, Thompson, 2009 aimed at adopting the model of leisure tourism decisionmaking to the conference context. The general model of decisionmaking foresees a fivestage process which consistsofmotivation,informationsearch,evaluationofalternatives,decisionandpostdecision behavior.Conferenceattendingdecisionisgroundedonthefactorssimilartothosewhendeciding tomakeholidays.Itistoalargeextentpredefinedbytheconditionoffreedomofchoicewhich mostly characterizes the case of association conferences. Still, there are differences between thesetwocases.Thus,themotiveorstimulustoattendtheconferencecanbeacallforpapersor an association mail which does not happen with leisure inclinations. However, such factors as attractivedestinationimageordesiretogetawayfromtheroutineofworkcanserveasamotive forbothtypesoftravel. At the stage of data search leisure travelers pay more attention to a thorough review of information about the destination and its attractions than conference delegates who most probably limit themselves to receiving all the details from a conference organizer and do not undertake much of additional effort to explore extra opportunities provided by the destination. Nevertheless,additionalinformationmaybeneededincasewhenpotentialvisitorsarenotfully sureiftoattendaneventornotoriftheybelongtothegroupofexperiencehungrybusiness travelerswhoseektousealltheextraactivitiesoftheplace. The evaluation of alternatives for business travelers corresponds greatly with Oppermanns interveningopportunities. Here the conference attendees may choose which out of all available options to follow, as well as leisure travelers evaluate various destinations with their attributes. But for conference delegates it may be not only the choice between conferences, but between certaincharacteristicspossessedbytheseconferences.Thisdependsontherankingofdifferent factors possessed by a certain convention or destination which can occupy higher or lower positioninthehierarchyofpersonalpreferencesandvalues.AssuggestedbyDann,thesefactors canbedividedintopushandpullones,pullstandingforappealinglocationorcurioustopic ofaconference,andpushonesdeterminedbypersonalbehavioralorsituationalreasonssuch asdesiretogetawayfromworkroutine. The stages of decision and postdecision behavior are rather similar for leisure and for business travelers.Certaindecisionistakeninanycasewhethertoattendtheconferenceornot,whether
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to go to the destination or not. What concerns postdecision behavior, here satisfaction of the delegates with the conference visited will significantly influence their future choice, just like for leisuretourists.Moreover,awordofmouthwillbespreadinbothcasesandwilleitherenhance theimageoftheconferenceordestination,orworsenit. Withregardtoalldecisionmaking processthephasesoffindingmotivationsand evaluatingthe alternativesarethemostinterestingones.Theyareexploreddeeperinthisresearchinrelationto importanceofleisuremotivationswhenmakingchoiceinfavorofcertainassociationconference. A number of studies have identified different factors influencing decisionmaking process of conference participants but there are main attributes which are common for the majority of researchconducted.Ageneraloverviewisgiveninthefollowingtable(Figure4)summarizedby Mair, Thompson, 2009 who out of main studies in the field derived basic dimensions, such as location, networking, cost, social aspects, intervening opportunities, conference/association activities,selfenhancementorpersonal/professionaldevelopment,productsanddeals.Itisclear thatsomeofthemaremorecommon(e.g.networking)whileotherscanberarelymet(products and deals). Other attributes which appeared just in few studies can be evaluated as non generalisable. But it is important to mention that conference/association activities and location whicharecloselyconnectedwithleisureandrecreationalactivitiesattheconferenceandatthe destinationarefoundinalmostallthesourceswhatobviouslyprovestheirhighrelevance.Some ofthesestudieswillbepresentedmoredeeplyinthischapter.

Figure4.Underlyingdimensionsofconferenceattendeemotivationsfromexistingliterature.Mair, Thompson,2009 One of the first conceptual research focusing on the perspective of conference attendees motivations belongs to Var, Cesario, Mauser, 1985, who identified two main determinants of convention visitation accessibility of the potential meeting site and the overall attractiveness
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whichisrelatedtoboth,aconventionsiteandatouristarea.Thesetwovariablesconstitutethe most important characteristics driving attendees demand for conferences. The variable of the attractivenessincludessuchattributesasavailabilityofleisureactivities,imageofthecity,tourism andculturalactivitieswhichareshowntoplayamoreimportantroleforassociationconvention delegatesthanforbusinesstravelersingeneral.Moreover,Varetal.suggestedconductingfurther analysis on explanation of the variation in the estimates of attractiveness parameter which is deeplylinkedtothetopicofpresentresearch. While according to Var et al. attractiveness of the destination together with accessibility constitute by far the most important element in conference venue decisions and give rise to convention attendance, Jago and Deery describe a perfect conference location as being interesting,exotic,safe,accessiblewhichincludesthenotionofleisureactivitiesavailableand practiced by conference delegates at the destination to feel its uniqueness and local character. Rittichainuwatetal.examinenotonlymotivationstoattendaconferencebutalsoallthosefactors thatmayfacilitateattendance.Oneofthemotivationalfactorswhichhasnotbeenidentifiedby previous research is sightseeing. It includes outdoor recreation, travelling to desirable places, a changeofplace.Theyareclearlylinkedtothedestinationattractiveness.Thus,thelocationfactor withitsattractivenessandopportunitiesforrecreationisoneofthekeyfactors. Oneofthebasicconceptualmodelsdefiningthemainfactorsinfluencingdecisionmakingprocess of conference attendees was presented by Oppermann, Chon, 1997. According to it, specific decisionmaking process with regard to conference attendance can be explained by the reasons similar to the general tourism destination selection process determinants which are subdivided into pull and push factors. Basing on the results of the previous studies conducted in the field Oppermann and Chon distinguish four main categories: Association/Conference, Personal/Business,LocationandInterveningopportunities. Conferencefactorsincludesuchcharacteristicsasinvolvementintoassociation,personalcontacts and networking opportunities, peer recognition, global community, in other words all the componentsconnectedtotheprofessionalgoalsoftheparticipants.Businessandpersonalones refer to health condition, financial opportunities, family status, time availability, necessity and desire to learn and develop. Location factors are those which are closely connected to the conference destination. They include destination image, transportation and accommodation facilities, accessibility, pre/post activities as well as previous experiences. Leisure and recreationalactivitiesperfectlyfitinthisgroupofmotivations.Otherconferenceswhicharebeing
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heldatthesametimeindifferentlocationsbelongtoInterveningOpportunities.Allthedefined factorscanbeofvariousimportanceforconferenceattendeeswhichisgreatlyinfluencedbytheir goals and objectives, psychographic characteristics, previous experiences, situational variables, etc. ThismodelwaslaterondeeperelaboratedbyZhang,Leung,Qu,2007,whocontinuedresearchof motivationsandpeculiaritiesofconferenceattendeesdecisionmakingprocessfromthedemand sideexaminingdelegatesinterestsmoreprecisely.Thoroughliteraturereviewoftheconvention relatedtopichelpedthemtorefineOppermannsmodelwhichwascombinedwiththefindingsof otherauthors(Figure5).Thiscomprehensiveanalysisidentifiedafewadditionalmotivesthougha core structure remained the same. The conceptual difference was that Zhang divided Location factors into two large categories accessibility of the destination and its attractiveness thus having incorporated Vars et al. approach. Accessibility is characterized by distance of a trip, availabilityofdirectflightsandeaseofvisaapplication,whileattractivenessincludesdestination image, climate, accommodation and conference facilities, sightseeing and leisure opportunities, entertainment and nightlife. The variables of attractiveness were also supported by previous studiesofRutherfordandKreck,1994,whoclaimedthatattendancebehavioroftheconference participants is influenced by tourism activities. Moreover, such attributes as scenery and sightseeingopportunities(Oppermann,1996;GoandZhang,1997;Bonnetal.,1994),availability of the nightlife (Oppermann, 1996; Sirakaya et al., 1996) were also considered being influential. Thisisthecategoryforfurtherdeepexplorationofthepresentresearch.Anotherdifferenceinthe refinedmodelisthatInterveningopportunitiesofOppermannaresubstitutedbyTotalcostfactors which deal with monetary and time costs of the attendees which are related to the conference visit.

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 Figure 5. Modified model of the conference participation decisionmaking process. Zhang et al, 2007 Motivations of conference visitors, their evaluation of conference experience, as well as behavioralmodesandcustomersatisfactionwerealsoexaminedbySevert,Wang,Chen,Breiter, 2007. They acknowledged that previous research conducted in this field lacked identification of relationshipexistingamongcustomersexpectations,theirsatisfactionandbehaviorandtherefore tried to fill in the gap analyzing satisfaction judgment and behavioral intentions with regard to conferencedelegates.

29

Theresultsofthepreviousanalysisdepictedthateducation,networking,careerenhancementand travelling to an attractive destination were of the highest significance among all the motivation factors pointed out by conference attendees. Meanwhile Severt et al. chose different attributes and asked respondents to rate them according to their experiences and personal inclinations. Activities and opportunities which are mostly relevant for this research happened to be ranked first to influence visitors choice, followed by networking, conference convenience, education benefits and products and deals. In this part Severt has revealed associationrelated activities, travel opportunities, guest programs to be important factors for the attendees decisionmaking process. Their overall satisfaction with an event was the consequence of satisfaction with availabilityoftheseattributesandtheirrankinginthetotallist.Satisfactionbeingfollowedwithan intention to return strongly influenced future behavior of delegates. That is why conference organizers need to have attendeeswith favorable post conference experiences. Moreover, their wordofmouthisabletoinfluenceconferenceimageeitherinapositiveorinanegativeway. In addition, by integrating attitude theory and a general paradigm of decisionmaking, a measurement scale for convention participation decisionmaking was elaborated by Yoo, Chon, 2008.42parametersinfluencingthechoiceoftheattendeeswereexaminedinthestudy,17were verified to have a high significance and were grouped in 5 main categories: destination stimuli, professional and social networking opportunities, educational opportunities, safety and health situation,travelability.Theleisurerelatedfactorofdestinationstimulisubdividedintoopportunity to visit convention destination, extra opportunities available at the destination and attractive imageoftheconventiondestinationwasprovedtobeimportantfordecisionmaking,especially whenanattendeewantedtocombinebusinessandleisure. Mair,Thompsonhavecomeupwithsixgroupsoffactorsexplainingdecisionmakingprocess.The most significant ones are networking and personal/professional development, followed by cost, location,timeandconvenience,healthandsecurity.Extrapolationofleisurerelatedattributeshas revealed available time off work, visiting the surrounding area, an attractive location to be important.Theirmodelslightlydiffersfromtheonessuggestedbyotherscholarsthoughitproves the fact that leisure and recreation form a considerable part of motivation when the problem comestochoosingconferencetoattend.Theyalsosuggesteddistinguishingbetweentwogroups of factors generic and specific. Generic are those considered to be important by convention participants in any location, related mostly to the conference experience itself, e.g. networking

30

opportunities. Specific depend on the time, location, its accessibility, level of prices, health and securityissues. The following table (Figure 6) summarizes all the leisurerelated conference attendees and consequently conference organizers motivations derived from the literature. It goes without sayingthatleisurecomponenthasaconsiderableweightinthegeneralmotivationsandtoagreat extentdeterminespotentialattendeesinclinationstovisitacertainconference. Author
Fortinetal. Varet.al. Edelstein,Benini Rutherford,Kreck Oppermann Sirakayaetal. Oppermann,Chon Rittichainuwatet.al Baloglu,Love Jago,Deery Zhang,Leung Severtetal. Yoo,Chon Mair,Thompson

Year
1976 1985 1994 1994 1996 1996 1997 2001 2004 2005 2007 2007 2008 2009

Leisurerelatedmotivationfactors
Hospitality,localinterest Attractivenessofthedestination:availabilityofleisureactivities, imageofthecity,tourismandculturalactivities Destinationimage,recreationalfacilities,touristattractions Tourismactivities Attractivelocation,cityimage,weather,scenery,sightseeing opportunities,nightlife,restaurantfacilities Nightlife Destinationimage,pre/postconferenceactivities,timeavailability Sightseeing:outdoorrecreation,travellingtodesirableplaces,a changeofplace Extraconferenceopportunities Interesting,exoticlocation Attractiveness:destinationimage,climate,sightseeingandleisure opportunities,entertainment,nightlife Activitiesandopportunities:associationrelatedactivities,travel opportunities,guestprogram Destinationstimuli:opportunitytovisitdestination,extra opportunitiesatthedestination,attractiveimage Attractivelocation,visitingsurroundingarea,availabletimeoffwork

Figure6.Extrapolationofleisurerelatedattributesoutof studieson decisionmakingprocessof conferenceattendees. So,theliteraturereviewonthetopicofconferencetravelandmotivationsofparticipantstotake part in conferences and conventions has revealed considerable connections between potential attendees inclinations to go on conferences and leisurerelated activities provided either by meetingorganizers or undertaken on their own during an event. Thus, a number of researchers provided a general overview of the topic including all the range of diverse motivations. Almost every research conducted on general motivations of conference participants identifies leisure related factors to be significant. However, no studies were identified to focus solely on leisure relatedmotivationsofconferenceparticipants.
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Chapter 2. Research on leisurerelated inclinations of conference attendees

2.1.

Methodology

Presentresearchaimsatfillinginthegapidentifiedbytheliteraturereviewbymeansoffinding out the importance of leisure opportunities for conference delegates and the willingness of business travelers to undertake recreational activities when attending congresses and conventions.Withthepurposeofdeeperinvestigationofthistopicanonlinequestionnairewas launchedwhichaddressedthosewhoparticipatedininternationalassociationconferences. 2.1.1.Questionnairedesign

The questionnaire was constructed using 5point Likert scale which measured an importance of leisurerelatedattributesinfluencingconferencedecisionmakingprocessofpotentialattendees. Itcomprised13questions,oneofwhichrequiredanopenanswer.Alltherestwerecloseended withamultiplechoicescale,mostlywithonepossibleanswer(Appendix1). Thequestionnairewasdesignedinthefollowingway.Thefirsttwoquestionsaimedatfindingout generalcharacteristicsofrespondentswithregardstoconferenceattendance:frequencyoftheir conferencevisitsandtheaveragelengthofstay,whilethethirdoneconcentratedonthegeneral perceptionoftheleisurefactorbydelegatesandthetotalweightofleisurecomponentonthelist ofoverallmotivations. Questions4and5presentedasetofleisurerelatedattributeswhichweresignificantforpersonal decisionmaking process of individuals and invited respondents to rank them according to individual motivations. These attributes were extracted from multiple studies of attendees motivations for making a choice in favor of a certain conference (Var et al., 1985; Oppermann, Chon, 1996; Zhang, 2007; Severt et al.,2007; Yoo, Chon, 2008; Mair, Thompson,2009). It is essential to mention that among 12 leisurerelated factors extracted there could be identified individual motivations with regards to convention destinations with their facilities and infrastructure, as well as those connected to conference organizers and general conference program predefined by meetingplanners. For instance, such factors as an opportunity to visit destination, its novelty, appealing image, weather, leisure opportunities available and possibility
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toexperiencedifferentculturerefertothedestinationitself,whilerecreationalactivitiesprovided by meetingplanners, availability of pre/post conference program, spouse and guest program, availability of free time fully depend on the supply side and refer to the conferenceorganizers. Bothofthesegroupsareimportantforpotentialattendees.Thefeaturetheyhaveincommonis theircloserelationtoleisureandrecreationalactivitiesundertakenbyconferencedelegates. Furtheron,inthequestionnr.5,respondentshadtorankthesameattributeswithregardtothe marketsupplyandexpresstheiropiniononthepointtowhichextenttypicalconferencespossess theabovementionedcharacteristics. Thefollowingsetof2questionswasdesignedwiththepurposetofindouthowoftenconference participantsmakeuseofleisureactivitiesprovidedbymeetingplannersorbydestinationsandin whichactivitiestheydooftentakepart.Hererespondentshadachoicetoindicatethreethemost popular recreational activities out of such basic ones as sightseeing, visiting museums, events, shopping,eatingout,nightlife,etc. Afterwards, the questionnaire seeks to find out which leisurerelated items business travelers usuallytakewiththemandbringfromtheirconferencebusinesstripsandhowwillingtheyareto researchtheconferencedestinationpriortotheevent. Thefollowingtwoquestionsinquiredhowsatisfactionwithleisureprograminfluenceddelegates decisiontoattendtheconferenceofthesameassociationinthefutureor,ingeneral,toreturnto thehostdestinationoftheconferenceindividually. Last,bymeansofanopenendedquestion,respondentswerekindlyaskedtoindicatetheirbest conferenceexperienceintermsofleisureprograminthelast5yearsandtogroundtheirchoice pointingoutspecificfeaturesoftheindicatedevents.Intheendrespondentsprofilewasstudied includingage,gender,countryofresidence,industrytheyareinvolvedinandpositionwithinthe organization. Whileconstructingthesurveytheattentionwaspaidtowardselaborationofclearquestionswhich couldbeeasilyunderstoodbyawidepublic.Arelativelysmallnumberofquestionswaschosen intentionally, in order not to prevent potential respondents from complete filling in the survey. Anonymous character of the questionnaire should not have prevented individuals from participationduetoprivacyissues. Afterdeveloping,thequestionnairewaspretestedonuniversityprofessorsandPhDstudentsfor whomattendingconferenceisaregularfeatureoftheiremployment.Pretestingwasconducted for the purpose of reducing ambiguity and eliminating unclearness of questions, as well as for
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picking out the most relevant ones and organizing them in the right order. After pretesting wordingofafewquestionswaschangedanditwasbetteradaptedtononscientificauditory. 2.1.2.Characteristicsofthesampleanddataanalysis

Aftertesting,questionnairewasdistributedtoconferenceattendeesbymeansofdirectemailing and via professional social network linkedin.com. Emails were sent to 50 potential respondents; however, they account not for the largest part of responses. On linkedin the questionnaire was posted in 24 groups, some of them belonging to certain associations (Association of Corporate TravelExecutives,NationalBusinessTravelAssociation,SalesAssociation,EmarketingAssociation Network, Seattle Marketing Association, etc.) while others were posted in groups dedicated to professional topics and events of certain industries (GSM Mobile World Congress, Southeastern Museums Conference, Canon Medical Events, Drug Discovery and Development Professionals). Postingthelinktothesurveyinprofessionalgroupnetworksonthewebsitemakesitdifficultto calculate the precise response rate. Valid responses were received from 67 participants after a fourweekperiod. Data analysis was conducted using PASW Statistics 18 version. General descriptive statistics procedures were applied in the beginning, followed by more indepth analysis of certain questions. Individual motivations to attend conference were studiesby means of factor analysis proceduresthatwillbedescribedinthefollowingpart.

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2.2.Studyresults

Thestudyresultsofpresentresearchfocuson4mainareas:respondentprofile,individualleisure related motivations of conference attendees, conference performance and its comparison with delegatesexpectationsandthegeneraldescriptionofthebehaviorofattendeeswithregardsto leisureandrecreation.Alltheseissuesarethoroughlyexploredinthefollowingsubchapters.

2.2.1.Respondentprofile

With regards to the sample characteristics, it is essential to point out that the responses are evenlydistributedaccordingtogender:outof67respondents33maleand34femalesrepliedto the questionnaire. Almost 45% of the responses were received from individuals in the age between30and40.30%arebelow30and25%are4060yearsold.Thus,agedistributionofthe sampleisrathereven. Thesurveyrespondentscomefrom12differentcountrieswiththemajoritycomingfromBelarus (25%),Switzerland(25%),theUnitedStates(19.4%)andItaly(10%)(80%ofthesampleoriginates from these four source countries) (Figure 7). Respondents from India, Germany, Austria, France werealsorepresentedinthesample. Respondentprofileaccordingtocountryof residence
6% 5% 9% 25% Belarus Switzerland USA Italy 20% 25% India Germany Other

10%

Figure7.Respondentprofileaccordingtothecountryofresidence. All the respondents come from a wide range of industries, the majority of them being from healthcare and medicine, pharmaceutical industry, banking and finance and academia. 45% are
35

senior and middle managers with 40% professionals. More detailed data on the respondents profileiscontainedintheAppendix2. 2.2.2.Analysisofleisurerelatedmotivationsofconferenceattendees One of the major objectives of the present research was to examine leisure motivations of conference attendees. The following figure depicts the importance of leisurerelated motivation factors for business travelers revealed by descriptive statistic procedures (Figure 8). The most significantonesarepossibilitytoexperiencedifferentculture(M=3.69,SD=1.090),opportunity tovisittheconventiondestination(M=3.48,SD=.943)andanappealingdestinationimage(M= 3.37, SD = 1.112) followed by desire to get away from routine of work (M = 3.34, SD = 1.149), proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure (M = 3.34, SD = 1.052) and availability of free time (M = 3.30, SD = 1.206). Such motivations as novelty of the convention destination (M = 2.48, SD = 1.119) and spouse and guest program (M = 2.49, SD = 1.353) were foundtobetheleastimportantones.
Motivation factor possibility to experience different culture opportunity to visit the convention destination appealing destination image desire to get away from routine of work proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure availability of free time leisure opportunities available at the destination participation in recreational activities provided by meeting-planners availability of pre-/post- conference sightseeing tours weather at the conference destination spouse and guest program novelty of the convention destination 2.93 2.49 2.48 1.063 1.353 1.119 2.93 1.318 3.03 1.154 3.30 3.16 1.206 1.123 3.37 3.34 3.34 1.112 1.149 1.052 Mean 3.69 3.48 Std. Deviation 1.090 .943

Figure 8. Means and standard deviations of leisurerelated motivation factors for conference attendance.
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Curios observation here is that destinationrelated factors were ranked higher than conference related. Thus, there can be noticed that the most significant motivations for the majority of respondents are connected with location, for instance, an opportunity to visit convention destination, possibility to experience new culture, appealing image and proximity to the city centre, while conferencerelated factors (recreation provided by meetingplanners, pre/post program,etc.)occupylowerpositionsinthetotalranking. Afterwards, for the purpose of examining the structure of leisurerelated motivations, factor analysiswasapplied.ThedatawasappropriateforfactoranalysiswhatwasconfirmedbyKeiser MeyerOlkinmeasureofsampleadequacywhichhadavalueof0.888.KMOvaluesbetween0.8 and 0.9 are considered to be great (Hutcheson and Sofroniou, 1999), so the value received is definitelyabovetherecommended.Bartlettstestofsphericityconfirmedithavingidentifiedan approximateChisquareof253.306atthesignificancelevelof0.000. Principal component analysis with VARIMAX orthogonal rotation was applied for the factor analysis. Generally, PCA seeks to identify which linear components exist in the dataset and how eachparticularvariableinfluencesthecomponent. The results of the principal component analysis are presented in the Figure 9. After applying reliabilityanalysisthreevariablesweredeletedoutofthetotallistspouseandguestprogram, novelty of the convention destination and opportunity to visit the destination. In the end Cronbachsalphamadeup0.881fornineitems.Theprincipalcomponentanalysisrevealed2main componentsexplaining62.486%ofthetotalvariance.AfterVARIMAXrotationthefirstcomponent accounted for 36% of the variance, while the second component explained 26%. The PCA was basedonEigenvalues,shapeofthescreeplotandqualityoftheloadingsinterpretation(Appendix 3).Communalitieswerefoundtobeintherangebetween0.450and0.718. Two main component groups with their peculiar characteristics identified after orthogonal VARIMAXrotationarepresentedontheFigure9.Rotationconvergedin3iterations.

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Component organized individual sightseeingand relaxationand culture ambience pre-/post- conference sightseeing tours recreational activities provided by meetingplanners leisure opportunities available at the destination appealing destination image possibility to experience different culture weather at the conference destination desire to get away from routine of work availability of free time proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. .606 .542 .832 .713 .638 .530 .810 .830 .818

Figure9.RotatedComponentMatrixforindividualmotivationsofconferenceattendees. Thefirstcomponentincludessuchvariablesasavailabilityofpreandpostconferencetoursand participation in recreational activities provided by meeting planners, an appealing destination image, leisure opportunities available at the destination and possibility to experience different culture.Collectivelyitcanbecalledorganizedsightseeingandculture.Itcompriseslotsofvarious leisure activities which can be undertaken within the framework of the conference, as well as separatelyatthedestination. Conferencedelegatesplacinghigherimportanceonthesecharacteristicsarehighlyinterestedin active leisure. These business travelers make use of both opportunities provided by meeting planners,aswellasdestinations.Conferenceleisureprogramisofhighimportanceforthemdue to professional and personal motivations and restricted time budget. However, they tend to participatenotonlyinleisureactivitiesorganizedforthembymeetingplannersbutalsoexplore the destination on their own being interested in local culture and people. Image and prestige factors tend to play a considerable role for them either. These are all characteristics of curious explorers. The second component identified comprises such motivations as weather at the convention destination,desiretogetawayfromroutineofwork,availabilityoffreetimeandproximitytothe
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city centre with its recreational infrastructure. This component can be jointly called individual relaxationandambience. For the attendees with these motivations prevailing over the others destination factors tend to havehighersignificance.Theyseektobedistractedandarelookingforwardtogetawayfromthe professionalsideoftheconference.Theyaremoreautonomousfromtheconferenceprogramme; professional networking is not their top priority. At the same time, they are interested in the destination but prefer to explore it on their own. Being rather individualistic they belong to the categoryofindependentrelaxationseekers. So, as a result there can be noticed that both conferencerelated motivations and destination related factors are intermixed within the overall range of motivations and tend to be of high importanceinbothcomponentsidentified.Fordifferenttypesofbusinesstravelersusuallyoneof thesecomponentstendstoprevailovertheother,thusdeterminingbehavioroftheperson. Moreover, it is essential to point out that these results prove the importance of certain leisure relatedfactorspreviouslyidentifiedbytheliterature.Thus,destinationimageandattractiveness were present among major conference attendees motivations indicated by Var et al., 1985; Edelstein,Benini,1994;Oppermann,Chon,1997;Yoo,Chon,2008. Meanwhilemanyresearchers emphasized availability of conference and destination leisure activities and referred to their importancefordecisionmakingprocessofconventiondelegates(Rutherford,Kreck,1994;Varet al., 1985; Edelstein, Benini, 1994; Zhang, Leung, 2007), as well as weather at the destination (Oppermann,1996)andavailabletimeoffwork(Mair,Thompson,2009)wereprovedtooccupya stablepositionamongpersonalpreferences.Consequently,presentresultsareinlinewithgeneral findingsoftheliterature. 2.2.3. Conference performance evaluation and its comparison with the attendees motivations Previoussubchapterexaminedthedataprovidedbythesurveyrespondentswithregardstotheir individualmotivationstoattendconferencesandconventions.Inaddition,theresearchhasasits goaltoanalyzepresentsituationatthemarketbymeansofcomparingmotivationsfromtheside of demand with the present conference performance. Therefore, respondents were asked not onlytoexpresstheirpreferencesbutalsotoevaluatethesetofcriteriawithregardstothetypical

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conferenceattended.Thefollowingtableprovidestheresultsofdescriptivestatisticalanalysisof thisissue(Figure10).
Performance factor proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure appealing destination image leisure opportunities available at the destination novelty of the conference destination recreational activities provided by meetingplanners information support on the leisure opportunities of the destination availability of free time possibility to experience different culture pre-/post- conference sightseeing tours spouse and guest program 2.93 2.93 2.76 2.24 1.049 1.271 1.304 1.244 2.97 1.114 3.09 2.99 1.026 1.108 3.34 3.10 .845 .971 Mean 3.37 Std. Deviation .982

Figure10.Evaluationofconferenceperformance. Themosthighlysignificantfactorspossessedbyatypicalconferencehappenedtobeproximityto thecitycentre(M=3.37,SD=.982),appealingdestinationimage(M=3.34,SD=.845),leisure opportunitiesatthedestination(M=3.10,SD=.971)andnoveltyoftheconferencedestination (M = 3.09, SD = 1.026). If to analyze these factors in comparison to motivations of potential delegateswecanwitnessthatappealingdestinationimage,aswellasproximitytothecitycentre hadahighvalueforbothdemandandsupplysides.Noveltyofconventiondestination,however, is not as highly significant for individuals as for conferenceorganizers. These observations were afterwardsproved by ttest results. The least important characteristics on the list of conference performance evaluation happened to be pre/post conference program (M = 2.76, SD = 1.304) and spouse and guest program (M = 2.24, SD = 1.244). Here the tendency can be observed towardshigherrankingofdestinationrelatedfactorstocomparewithconferencerelatedones.

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The following table (Figure 11) depicts comparison of means and standard deviations of motivationsandperformanceindicators.Thesefactorswereevaluatedonthesame5pointLikert scaleandweremostlyidenticalwhichgivesapossibilitytoconductacomparativeanalysis.
Factors possibility to experience different culture appealing destination image proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure availability of free time leisure opportunities available at the destination recreational activities provided by meeting-planners availability of pre-/post- conference sightseeing tours spouse and guest program novelty of convention destination 2.49 2.48 1.353 1.119 2.24 3.09 1.244 1.026 2.93 1.318 2.76 1.304 3.03 1.154 2.99 1.108 3.30 3.16 1.206 1.123 2.93 3.10 1.049 .971 Mean 3.69 3.37 3.34 Std. Deviation 1.090 1.112 1.052 Mean 2.93 3.34 3.37 Std. Deviation 1.271 .845 .982

Figure11.Comparisonofdescriptorsofindividualmotivationsandconferenceperformance. The match between individual motivations and conference performance is illustrated by the following diagram (Figure 12), where novelty of convention destination and possibility to experience different culture tend to possess the most significant mismatch between supply and demandsides.
noveltyofconventiondestination spouseandguestprogram pre/post conferenceprogram recreationalactivitiesprovidedbymeetingplanners leisureopportunitiesavailableatthedestination availabilityoffreetime proximitytothecitycentre appealingdestinationimage possibilitytoexperiencedifferentculture 0 Conferenceperformance 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Motivationsofconferenceattendees

Figure 12. Coalignment between leisurerelated motivations of conference attendees and conferenceperformance.
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Additionally, a more precise assessment of attendees motivations vs. conference performance was conducted by means of the ttest which allows to derive conclusions from comparison of means. Figure 13 presents the results of the analysis. Paired sample test revealed existing differencesonlywithinseveralgroupsofmotivationfactors.Takingintoaccountappropriatelevel ofsignificance(below0.05)andtvaluesthreefactorsoutofthegenerallistwerefoundtohave considerabledisparitiesbetweenmotivationsandperformanceevaluationnoveltyofconvention destination,possibilitytoexperiencedifferentcultureandavailabilityoffreetime.Thefirstfactor is the one where industrys performance overcomes customers expectations, while for the last two factors conference attendees placing importance on these motivations feel that meeting plannersdonotsatisfytheirdemands.Foravailabilityoffreetimetvalueisnotverysignificant, thereforethedifferenceisnotnoteworthy. So,theassessmentofmeansofbothgroupsidentifiesconsiderablesimilaritiesintheimportance of majority of motivational factors and conference performance in relation to these factors. Appealing destination image, proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure, leisure opportunities provided by both destinations and meetingplanners do not possess any significant differences in means. These factors occupy high positions in the total ranking and therefore are rather important. The absence of the gap proves that conferenceorganizers are doingquitewellinsatisfyingtheabovementionedneedsofthedelegates.
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Paired Samples Test Paired Differences 95% Confidence Std. Deviatio Mean Pair 1 Pair 2 appealing destination image (motivations-performance) novelty of the convention destination (motivationsperformance) leisure opportunities available at the destination (motivationsperformance) recreational activities provided by meeting-planners (motivations-performance) pre-/post- conference sightseeing tours (motivationsperformance) proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure (motivations-performance) spouse and guest program (motivations-performance) possibility to experience different culture (motivationsperformance) availability of free time (motivations-performance) .030 -.612 n 1.087 1.359 Std. Error Mean .133 .166 Interval of the Difference Lower -.235 -.943 Upper .295 -.280 t .225 -3.686 df 66 66 Sig. (2tailed) .823 .000

Pair 3

.060

1.242

.152

-.243

.363

.394

66

.695

Pair 4

.045

1.319

.161

-.277

.367

.278

66

.782

Pair 5

.164

1.442

.176

-.187

.516

.932

66

.355

Pair 6

-.030

1.128

.138

-.305

.245

-.217

66

.829

Pair 7

.254

1.374

.168

-.082

.589

1.511

66

.136

Pair 8

.761

1.304

.159

.443

1.079

4.779

66

.000

Pair 9

.373

1.153

.141

.092

.654

2.650

66

.010

Figure13.Comparisonofmeansofmotivationsandperformancebymeansofttest. Thenextstepofanalysisimpliedgroupingtheavailablefactorsofconferenceplannersbymeans of conducting principle component analysis with VARIMAX orthogonal rotation. KMO revealed sampleadequacyatthelevel0.796whichisconsideredtobegood,confirmedbyBartletttestof sphericityat0.00significancelevel. AfterapplyingreliabilitytestandadjustingCronbachsalphaonecomponentwasdeletedoutof the total list proximity to the city centre with its recreational infrastructure. For nine components Cronbachs alpha has made up 0.888. Communalities were identified to be in the rangebetween0.379and0.820. The following table (Figure 14) presents the results of the PCA identifying two principal components which explain 66.245% of the variance (Appendix 4). After orthogonal rotation the
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first component explained 35% of the total variance, while the second one accounted for 30%. Rotationconvergedin3iterations.
Component organized individual sightseeing relaxationand andculture ambience leisure opportunities available at the destination appealing destination image recreational activities provided by meetingplanners novelty of the conference destination information support on the leisure opportunities of the destination availability of free time spouse and guest program possibility to experience different culture pre-/post- conference sightseeing tours Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. .407 .900 .857 .685 .704 .623 .796 .740 .815

Figure14.RotatedComponentMatrixforconferenceperformanceevaluation. Theresultsoftherotatedanalysisofconferenceperformancecharacteristicsareseentobetoa certain extent related to the results of the factor analysis conducted on individual leisure motivations. There can be identified 2 main components corresponding to various preferences. The first group encompasses leisure opportunities at the destination, recreational activities provided by meetingplanners, appealing image and novelty of the destination, as well as informationsupportofthedelegatesontheleisureopportunities.Thesemotivationscorrespond tothetastesofcuriousexplorersforwhomrecreationatthedestinationisimportant.Thewider the range of activities offered, thebetter for the delegates, since they do not only make use of abundant opportunities of the destination but tend to prefer combining professional activities with leisure events. These factors correspond with the group of preferences called organized sightseeingandculture.

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The second component identified availability of free time, possibility to experience different culture,spouseandguestprogramsandpre/postconferencetoursbeinggroupedtogether.Ina waytheycorrespondwithagroupofindividualrelaxationandambienceseektosatisfythetastes ofindependentrelaxationseekerswiththeirdesiretoexplorethedestinationanditscultureon theirownorwithapartner.Conventiondelegatesprefertobeprovidedwithfreetimeandnotto be stressed with manifold organized activities. At the same time, this component encompasses organizationofpreandpostconferencesightseeingprogramswhichdoesnotcorrespondwith motivationsoftherelatedgroupofconferenceattendees.Thiscanbepartiallyexplainedbythe fact that despite the desire of delegates belonging to various groups to participate in such activitiestheirtimeandbudgetconstraintsoftenpreventthemfromundertakingthesetours. Thus, there can be witnessed that the components identified by factor analysis of conference performance and the ones illustrating the customers motivations are grouped in a similar way possessing two main groups of motivation factors organized sightseeing and culture and individualrelaxationandambience.

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2.2.4.Personalinclinationsandbehavioralcharacteristicsofconferenceattendees

If to examine conferencerelated characteristics of respondents there can be observed that the majorityofresponseswerereceivedfromindividualswhoattendconferencesonaregularbasis. Thus,20%takepartinconventions,congressesandconferencesatleastonceayear,around40% visit conventions twothree times a year, not to mention that more than 30% of examined individuals go on conferences four times a year and more often. Just onetenth are those who attend conferences not regularly being convention participants rarer than once a year. 64% of respondentsusuallystayatconferencesfor23overnights,while15%tendtoprolongtheirvisitto 4overnightsandlonger(Appendix5). As a matter of a fact, leisure interests of business travelers were found to be quite important. Almost 80% of responses were received from those who considered leisure opportunities and recreationalactivitiesattheconferencetobesignificantwith22.4%indicatingthisparameterat thehighestimportancemeasurementoftheLikertscale.Givenexistinglimitationsoftheresearch, thisfiguresimplythatleisurecomponentofconferencebusinesstravelhasaconsiderableweight for convention delegates and should be thoroughly examined and taken into consideration by meetingplannersandassociationssincebymeansofincreasingthelevelofattendeessatisfaction meetingplanners are able to improve conference performance and attract higher number of delegates. Thedatareceivedspursthelightonleisureorganizationpreferredbyconferenceattendees.Asa result, leisure activities undertaken on their own initiative are slightly more popular among the respondentsthantheonesorganizedbymeetingplannersthoughthedifferenceisnotsignificant (M=3.21inthefirstcaseagainstM=2.94inthesecond;40%against27%areAlwaysinvolvedin independentleisure)(Appendix6).Atthesametime,approximately10%ofrespondentsareNever interested in activities organized by conference planners, while not a single person was Never interested in individual leisure and recreation. This figure provides evidence to the fact that all business travelers going on conferences foresee the possibility of not only professional developmentandnetworkingbutalsoofleisureactivitiestobeundertakenindependently.Their inclinationsdependonvariousfactors,professionalandindividualones. Pre/postconferenceprogrambeingmeetingplannersinitiativeattractsapproximatelythesame amount of business travelers as general leisurerelated activities provided by conference organizers.Thepercentageissimilar,thoughadditionaloutofconferenceprogramsprovokeabit
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lower interest which can be explained by additional time and money budget needed for arrangementofpreandpostconferencetours(Appendix6). So, the implication derived from the above mentioned figures supports the fact that when attending conferences the majority of the delegates tend to be involved in leisure activities. Explorationoftheactivitiestheyvoluntarilyundertakerevealedthefollowinglistofthingstodo (Figure 15). The data is presented in the descending order according to popularity of a certain activity.
Activity
Visitinglocalrestaurants Sightseeing(selforganized) Shopping Visitingmuseums,exhibitions,galleries Guidedtours Nightlife Culturalactivitiesandevents(theatres, concerts,festivals) Meetinglocalpeople Others

Frequency 45 37 31 30 24 23 21 14 3

Percent 67.2 55.2 46.3 44.8 35.8 34.3 31.3 20.9 4.5

Figure15.Listofleisurerelatedactivitiespopularamongconferenceattendees AccordingtotheFigure15,themosthighlyrankedactivitiesarevisitinglocalrestaurantsandself organized sightseeing more thanhalf of the respondents take partin the mentioned activities when being on conferences. Shopping and visits to museums and galleries also occupy an importantplaceinthelistofpersonalpreferencesbeingpracticedbyaround45%ofthesample. Approximately one third of respondents is interested in guided tours, nightlife and cultural activitiesandevents,whilemeetinglocalpeopleistheleastpopularactivityintherankingwhich attracts only 20% of individuals. In the group of Others some respondents indicates additional sportactivitiespracticedwhenbeingonconferences,suchastennis,hiking,swimming. Thefollowinganalysiswasconductedwiththepurposetofindexistingdistinctivecharacteristics of the sample with regard to leisure having as its basis identification of loadings of the two components Individual relaxation and ambience and Organized sightseeing and culture. Two main groups of attributes were chosen as the principal ones for studying socioeconomic characteristicsofconferenceattendeesandtourismactivitiestheytendtoundertakevoluntarily.
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Sociocultural portarit,or repondent profile,was examined according to age, gender, country of residence, industry and position within the organization. Leisure activities were studied considering the subdivision into organized sightseeing, guided tours, museums, cultural events, shopping,localrestaurants,meetinglocalpeopleandnightlife.Notallcorrelationswerefoundto besignificanttakingintoaccount2componentsidentifiedbyfactoranalysis,neverthelesssome resultswerequitecurious. Out of respondent profile variables gender and country of residence were studied thoroughlly beingexpectedtodepictdifferentbehaviouralpatternsoftherespondents.Thefollowingfigure (Figure16)illustratesanoverallsamplewhichincludesrespondentsoriginatingfrom12countries. The appropriate for analysis number of individuals were from Switzerland (25%), Belarus (25%) andtheUSA(19%),followedbyItaly(however,Italywithjust10%ofthesamplewasfoundtobe notrepresentative).

Figure16.Sampledistributionaccordingtocountryofresidence. Thesampleisevenlydistributedbetween2and2valuesofthetwocomponentsonXandYaxes whichcorrespondtoOrganizedsightseeingandcultureandIndividualmotivationsandambience, withfewexceptionsstandingout.Afterwards,3mainsourcecountrieswereexaminedseparately in the same framework. The Figure 17 depicts the distribution of respondents of various nationalitieswithinthesample.
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Figure 17. Distribution of the sample according to nationalities: Belorussians, Swiss, Americans, Italians.

Allthecountriespossesscertaincharacteristicswithregardstomotivationcomponentsidentified. Thus, there can be witnessed that the group of Belorussian business travelers has a very high interestinOrganizedsightseeingandculturewithjust3individualsoutof17beingnotinclinedto undertake these activities. With the Swiss respondents the situation is different. At this market therecanbeidentifiedtwomaingroupsofpreferences:eitherSwisstendtoshowhighinterestin bothorganizedcultureandindividualsightseeingbeingveryactiveleisureconsumers,ortheyare simply not interested in any of them and for them leisure opportunities when attending conferencesarenotappealing.Americansareratherdistributedbuttherecanbementionedthat
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for the residents of the United States Individual relaxation component tends to play higher importance than Organized culture and sightseeing. However, some of the Americans do not possessanyleisureinclinationsatall.ThesampleofItaliansisrathersmallwhatmakesitdifferent to draw conclusions. Thus, the results of analysis according to country of residence are quite diverseandcanbepartiallyexplainedbynationalpecularities. Differentnationalitieswerealsostudiedonthesubjectofgeneralimportanceofleisureforthem andinfluenceofappealingleisureprogramontheirdecisionmakingprocessinfavourofacertain conference. This was undertaken partially for the purpose to prove correct identification of the twocomponentsrevealedbyPCA.TheresultsweremostlyinlinewithexpectationsshowingVery importantandImportantevaluationfortheindividualswhopossessedinclinationstooneofthe twocomponentsortobothofthemsimultaneousely(Figure18).Negativeanswerswerefoundin the third quarter of the graph where individuals without strong leisure inclinations are located. While leisure preferences of Belorussians being defined by their position on the plot coincided with their previous answers to this question, a few exceptions out of the general expectations were identified for Swiss people. Those Americans who pointed out High importance of leisure meantinmostcasesOrganizedlesureandsightseeingcomponentommittingIndividualrelaxation.

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Figure18.Importanceofleisureactivitiesfordifferentnationalities. Further on, leisure activities undertaken by delegates during conferences and conventions were thoroughlystudied.First,theonesreferringtoOrganizedcultureandsightseeingwereextracted outofthegenerallist,suchasleisureactivitiesasguidedtours,culturalactivitiesandeventsand visitingmuseums,galleries,exhibitions. Thefollowingplot (Figure19)depictsthedistributionof
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individuals with their positive and negative responses with regards to each activity. Mostly, respondentswhowouldundertaketheseactivitieswerelocatedinthefirstorthefourthquarters ofthegraphpossessinghighinterestinthecomponentofcultureandsightseeing,whiletheones inclinedtoindividualrelaxationusuallydidnotparticipateinthesekindofrecreation.However, distributuion showed that museums were often visited by the respondents with low interest in bothcomponents.

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Figure 19. Respondents distribution with regards to cultural leisure activities: guided tours, museums,culturalactivitiesandevents. Such activities as shopping, meeting local people, going to restaurants and nightlife are popular with all conference attendees notwithstanding their type and inclinations, therefore analysis of theseactivitieshasnotrevealedanystrongcorrelations. Explorationofthesamplewithregardstotherespondentsage,occupationandpositionhasnot identifiedanysignificantdisparitiesbetweenleisureactivitiesundertakenwithinthesample.This maybepartiallyexpalinedbythelimitednumberofparticipants. However,therearesomeissuestopointoutwhichwereprovedbythepresentresearch: Generally, gender was found to be not very significant: examination of male and female leisure behavior has not disclosed considerable disparities. Both genders answered in a similar waythe questions about cultural activities, guidedtours and visits to restaurants. Slightdifferenceswereidentifiedwithreagardstocertainactivities.Forexample,women wereprovedtobemoreinterestedinshoppingthanmen,whilementendtodevotemore timetonightlife; OutofallculturalactivitiesBelorussiansareveryinterestedinguidedtoursmuchmore than any other nation and visits to museums and galleries. Curiously they do not give
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prioritytovisitinglocalrestaurants:themajorityanswerednegativelythisquestionwhich isquitedifferentforothernationalities.NightlifeisalsonotveryappealingforBelorussian conferenceattendees; Americansarenotinclinedtowardsindividualsightseeing,howevermuseumsandgalleries visitsarequitepopularamongthem.Shoppingismorewidespreadamongrepresentatives ofthiscountrythenamongBelorussiansorSwiss.Moreover,theyarenr.1intheranking accordingtointerestinthenightlife,and100%oftheAmericansampletendtovisitlocal restaurants; Swissarequiteinterestedinindividualsightseeing,barelyinculturalevents,guidedtours and museums. Restaurants also were mentioned by almost every Swiss respondent as a commonleisureactivities. Further research focused on general leisure issues common for business travelers of all nationalities.Withregardstotheleisurerelateditemswhichconferenceattendeestendtotake with them and to bring back home the following results were achieved. The greatest majority takesphotocamera(91%)toconferences.Mapsofthedestination,bathingsuitsandbookshave considerable weight (around 50%); guides and sport outfit is taken by nearly a quarter of the respondents. Some people indicated other entertaining articles such as music. Few representatives of the sample always have stomach medicine with them when attending internationalconferences.Preciseresultsarepresentedinthefollowingtable(Figure20):
Item
Photocamera Mapsofthedestination Bathingsuit Books Guidebooks Sportoutfit Magazines Other

Frequency 61 33 31 26 18 16 10 2

Percent 91 49.3 46.3 38.8 26.9 23.9 14.9 3.0

Figure20.Leisurerelateditemstakentoconferencesbytheattendees. Outofleisurerelateditemsbroughthomefromtheconferencedestinationtheleadingpositionis occupiedbythecategoryoflocalsouvenirs(65%)followedbylocalfoodandclothing(Figure21).

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Aroundonefourthoftherespondentsareinterestedinpostcardsandguidebooksfromtheplace, while7.5%tendnottobringhomeleisurerelateditemsatall.Inthecategoryofothertherewere identifiedjustpictures,gifts,books,newspapers,evenmatchboxesandlipsticks.

Item
Localsouvenirs Localfood Clothing Guidebooksandbrochures Postcards Nothing Other

Frequency 44 24 21 18 14 5 5

Percent 65.7 35.8 31.3 26.9 20.9 7.5 7.5

Figure21.Leisurerelateditemsbroughthomefromconferencesbytheattendees. Anotherobjectiveoftheresearchwastofindouthowsatisfactionwithleisurecomponentofthe conferenceexperiencewouldinfluencethebehaviorofbusinesstravelersinthefuture.Theaim wastoproveanimportanceofleisurerelatedactivitiesprovidedfromthesideofdestinationsand associationsandtoseeifindividualstendtoreturntothedestinationandtothesameassociation conference if the level of their satisfaction is high. It was found out that if to consider positive resultsonlythenumbersarequitehigh.44.8%ofrespondentswouldattendthesameconference infutureattheconditionofthembeinghappywithleisurerelatedactivities,while52.2%would independently visit the destination in this case (Appendix 7). Moreover, analysis of existing correlations proves that the more important role leisure plays for conference attendees, the higher the possibility to come back to the destination or to the conference after satisfactory leisure experience. Therefore, evidently, both conference organizers and destinations should be interested in providing convention participants with appropriate recreational program and facilities,sincefuturereturnswillbeatthehigherlevel. Thedistributionofthe respondentsanswerswithregardstotheirintentiontoattendthesame association conference or the destination in the future under the condition of satisfaction with leisureprogramanalyzedwithintheframeworkoftwomotivationcomponentsidentifiedbyfactor analysis verifies the fact that the more the delegates are pleased with recreation, the more positiveanswersarereceived(Appendix8).However,forconferenceattendeesthecomponentof organized culture and sightseeing was found to be more influential on the consecutive choice thanindividualrelaxationandambiencesincethemajorityofpositiveanswersareconcentrated
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in the first and the fourth quarters of the plot. That proves the high impact leisure activities organizedbymeetingplannersproduceontheparticipantsfuturebehavior. Whenexaminingpersonalinclinationstoresearchtheconferencedestinationspriortodeparture itwasfoundthat58%ofthesamplealwaysdoit,35%sometimesandjust7%oftherespondents are not conducting previous research (Figure 22). Therefore, the majority of business travelers prefertobeprovidedwithanappropriatedatabeforehandinordertosatisfytheirneeds.

Figure22.Destinationresearchinclinationsofconferenceattendees.

The only openended question of the survey referred to the respondents most memorable conference experience in terms of leisure. 85% of individuals indicated a vast variety of conferences taking place all over the world in the last 5 years, while 15% could not answer the questionaboutthemostmemorableinleisuretermsconferenceexperience.Thesamplewastoo small to identify popularity of certain locations or associations, however in Europe Vienna and Romewerenamedrepeatedly,whileintheUSASanFranciscowasthemostpopularconvention destinationamongrespondents. A wide variety of leisurerelated issues which made an experience unique were named by conferencedelegates.Amongthemtherecanbedistinguishedthreemajorgroupsofindividuals according to the type of activities they appreciate. A big group of the respondents indicated specificleisureactivitiesconnectedtocertaindestinationsandorganizedbyconferenceplanners, suchasvisitstopyramidsorGreatChinawall,seaexcursionsandboattrips,guidedtours,visitsto botanicalgardensandattendingtheatricalperformancesbylocals.
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Secondcategoryofrespondentspaidattentiontogaladinners,eatingoutinspecificlocationsor hostedbyfamouspeople,visitinglocalrestaurantsandfarewellparties.Thoserespondentstend to be interested in networking possibilities provided by meetingplanners, therefore prefer to combineleisurewithbusiness. Thethirdquitenumerousgrouppointedouttheconferencelocation,proximitytothecitycentre withitsinfrastructureandavailabilityoffreetimewhichgavepossibilitytoexplorethedestination independentlytobethemostmemorableissues.Thoseareindividualexplorerswhohavestrong interestandcuriosityinleisurebutprefertogetacquaintedwithdestinationsontheirown. Notably,suchadivisioncorrespondswiththedistinctivecomponentsrevealedbyfactoranalysis. Thefirsttwogroupstendtopreferorganizedsightseeingandcultureandthelastoneidentified possessesstrongerinterestinindividualrelaxationandambience. Thus, the data derived from the survey illustrates that for the majority of survey participants leisurerelated motivations play an important role when making a choice in favor of a certain conference which provides convention delegates not only with professional and networking opportunitiesbutwithmemorableleisureexperiences.

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Conclusions

Presentresearchfocusesonthesegmentofconventionandconferencetravelwiththepurposeto spur the light on the leisurerelated component of business travel. Leisure and recreation undertaken during conferences distinguishes the segment of conference attendees from other typesofbusinesstravel.Theresearchcontainsanoverviewofawidevarietyofmotivationfactors which influence decisionmaking process of potential conference delegates and concentrates on leisurebehaviorofbusinesstravelersattendingconferences. With regard to this the main research question aimed at finding out to which extent leisure possibilitiesinfluencethechoiceofthebusinesstravelersinfavorofacertainconferenceandhow willingconferenceattendeesaretoundertakeleisureactivities.Inordertosatisfythiscuriosityan extensive literature review was conducted. It comprised general examination of business travel industry and exploration of connections existing between business travel and leisure tourism. Further on, in was narrowed down to the conference tourism field where both conference attendees motivations as well as meetingorganizers perspective were presented. Thorough investigation of a wide range of individual motivations of conference delegates with regard to convention choice was undertaken and leisurerelated components were extracted out of the overalllistandfurtherdeeplyexamined. The research was conducted in the form of selfreported online questionnaire which addressed attendees of international association conferences. The study results derived focus on the followingareas: individualleisurerelatedmotivationsofconferenceattendees; delegates evaluation of conference performance with regards to leisure activities and its comparisonwiththeexpectations; general description of individual leisure preferences and behavioral patterns of conference attendees. The obtained results proved an importance of leisure component in general motivations of conferenceattendees.Circa80%ofresponseswerereceivedfromthosewhoconsideredleisure opportunities and recreational activities at the conference to be important for the conference choice. Thegeneralcomparisonofindividualmotivationsandconferenceperformancefromthepointof viewofconventiondelegatesprovedthematchbetweendemandandsupplysideoftheindustry.
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Among the most important attendees motivations there were identified an opportunity to visit conventiondestinationandexperiencedifferentculture,destinationimage,aswellasavailability offreetimeandproximitytothecitycentre.Theobtainedresultsrevealedthattoagreatextent attendees leisure preferences were satisfied by conference organizers. However, for some factors,suchaspossibilitytoexperiencedifferentculture,thegapisquiteconsiderableillustrating highinterestofbusinesstravelersandlowlevelofmeetingorganizersperformance. Meanwhile,inthecourseofresearchtherewereidentifiedspecificmotivationsto whichsupply sideoftheindustrypaysmuchhigherattentionthanconferenceattendeesactuallyrequire.Thus, conventiondelegatesneedsandexpectationswithregardstonoveltyofthedestinationarebeing considerablyovercome. Another study observation is that destinationrelated personal motivations were ranked higher than conferencerelated ones. However, when evaluating performance the disparities were not that visible. When conducting principal component analysis motivations were intermixed either, thereforebothgroupsoffactorsshouldbetreatedasequallyimportantandinfluential. Factoranalysisrevealedtwomaincomponentswithintheoverallrangeofindividualmotivations whichwerenamedorganizedsightseeingandcultureandindividualrelaxationandambience. The first group comprises lots of diverse leisure activities which can be undertaken within the frameworkoftheconference,aswellasseparatelyatthedestinationandplaceshighimportance onactiveleisure.Businesstravelerswiththesemotivationsprevailingovertheothersarecurious explorers who tend not only to participate in leisure activities organized for them by meeting planners but also explore the destination on their own being interested in local culture and people. Thesecondcomponentofindividualrelaxationandambienceencompassessuchmotivationsas weatherattheconventiondestination,desiretogetawayfromroutineofwork,availabilityoffree timeandproximitytothecitycentrewithitsrecreationalinfrastructure.Theattendeesinterested more in these leisure opportunities are those for whom destination factors tend to have higher significance. Being rather individualistic they belong to the category of independent relaxation seekers. Comparison of the above mentioned motivations with the present industry performance demonstrates that many important attendees demands are being satisfied by conference organizers.However,inordertosatisfyattendeestothefullextentmeetingplannersshouldpay

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higherattentiontoprovidingdelegateswithpossibilitiestoexperiencedifferentculture,aswellas withfreetimeontheirown. Explorationofpeculiarcharacteristicsoftherespondentsaccordingtotheirnationalitiesrevealed threedifferentpatternsofleisurebehaviorofSwiss,BelorussianandAmericanbusinesstravelers. Belorussians are interested in culture and organized sightseeing much more than other nations, while Americans out of all cultural activities pay the highest attention to visiting museums. The respondents from the US are the most frequent restaurant visitors and nightlife seekers. What concernsSwiss,theyareeitherindividualexplorerswhoarebarelyinterestedingroupactivitiesor are attending conferences exclusively for the purpose of business without any inclinations to participate in leisure and recreation. Thus, speaking about practical implications of these results fortheindustry,whenplanningleisureactivitiesconferenceorganizersshouldtakeintothorough considerationcustomerprofileandcomposeconferenceleisurepackagewithregardtodelegates characteristics. If to mention the most memorable leisure activities being practiced by the studied sample the results identify three main groups of leisure being mostly attractive for conference attendees. Among them depending on personal preferences and behavioral patterns there could be distinguishedculturalactivitiesatthedestinationorganizedbymeetingplanners,leisureactivities combinedwithnetworkingpossibilities,suchasgaladinnersatnicelocations,orsimplyavailability of free time and proximity to the city centre which allow conference delegates to examine the destination on their own. Therefore, meetingplanners should choose suitable destinations and plan leisure events in details, since often nonprofessional activities attract delegates attention andplayaconsiderableroleinthefinalchoiceofthepotentialconferenceparticipants. Apart from contribution to the existing literature the study has its practical implications. The research findings confirmed that the leisure component of conference business travel has a considerableweightforconventiondelegatesandshouldbethoroughlyexaminedandtakeninto consideration by meetingplanners and associations, since by means of increasing the level of attendeessatisfactionmeetingplannersareabletoimproveconferenceperformanceefficiency, allocate their resources in a more effective way and attract higher number of delegates. Moreover, high significance for convention delegates of the nonbusiness component should encouragedestinationstoprovidethemwithallthenecessaryrecreationalfacilitiesandservices, thusattractingahighlyprofitablesegmentofbusinesstravel.

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Thus, given high importance of leisure and recreational activities for conference attendees, in order to attract higher number of visitors conferenceorganizers should optimize conference packages paying thorough attention to individual leisure motivations, fill in the gap between existingattendeespreferencesandindustryperformance,andtakeintothoroughconsideration customerprofileanddelegatescharacteristicswhencomposingconferenceleisureprogramme.

LimitationsandFutureresearch

Present research has a number of limitations which should be taken into consideration when interpretingthefindings.Thestudywasconductedwitharelativelysmallsamplesizewhichwas selfselected to some extent, therefore the results are not highly generalizable. Due to personal reasonsandeasieraccesstocertaincountriesrespondentsthedatawascollectedfromfewmain source nationalities, including Belorussians, Swiss and Americans. Moreover, respondents belonged to a narrow range of occupations being mostly from pharmaceutical industry and healthcare, academia, marketing, banking and finance. Therefore the results should be carefully examined and other samples should be involved into further examination. These limitations should encourage more efficient future work in the field of interconnections between leisure tourismandbusinesstravel. Future research may cover a higher number of respondents with diverse socioeconomic characteristics.Thus,itwouldbeusefultoexamineothernationalitiesattitudetowardsdifferent leisureactivitiesandtoincludeabroaderspectrumofoccupationsoftherespondents.Moreover, thenumberofmotivationalattributeswasratherrestrictedinthepresentstudy,thereforethelist of conference attendees motivations may be not only extended in the future but also grouped accordingtodifferentindustryplayersdestinationsandassociationscanbeexploredseparately. Modification of factor structure could provide more relevant findings. The field of leisure motivationsofconferenceattendeesisstillratherunderinvestigatedandwiththenewdatanew findingsmayberevealed.

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Appendices
Appendix1
Questionnaire

Leisuremotivationsofconferenceattendees
University of Lugano, Switzerland, is currently conducting a research on business travelers attending professionalconferences.Obviously,themainreasonstotakepartinsucheventsareprofessionalinterests and networking opportunities. However, given the present days conditions of tough competition on the market,leisureactivitiesprovidedeitherbyameetingorganizer,orbyadestination,arebecomingmore importantwhenchoosingaconferencetoparticipatein. Present research aims at finding out attendees' motivations with regards to leisure and recreational activitiesundertakenatconferences.Ifyouhaveattendedprofessionalconferences,Iwouldkindlyaskyou tofillinthefollowingquestionnaire.Itwilltake5minutesofyourtime,itisanonymous,andtheresults takenintoconsiderationbyconferenceorganizersmayenhanceyourfutureconferenceexperience. NataliaTretyakevich MasterInternationalTourism 1. Howoftendoyouusuallyattendassociationconferences? a. Lessthanonceayear b. 1timeayear c. 2timesayear d. 3timesayear e. 4timesayearandmore 2. Whichisanaveragelengthofyourstayataconference? a. 1day b. 1overnightstay c. 23overnights d. 4overnightsandmore 3. Whenattendinganassociationconferencehowimportantareforyouanappealingleisureprogram andrecreationalpossibilitiesprovidedbyconferenceorganizersoradestination? a. Notimportantatall b. Unimportant c. Somewhatimportant d. Important e. Veryimportant 66

4. Howimportantarethefollowingcriteriaforyourdecisionmakingprocesswhenchoosinga conferencetoattend?
1notimportantatall 2unimportant 3somewhatimportant 4important 5veryimportant

Nr. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Criteria opportunitytovisittheconventiondestination appealingdestinationimage noveltyoftheconventiondestination extraopportunitiesavailableatthedestination participationinthesocialandrecreationalactivitiesprovidedby meetingplanners 6. availabilityofpre/postconferencesightseeingtoursand leisureopportunities 7. availabilityoffreetime 8. proximitytothecitycentrewithitsrecreationalinfrastructure 9. spouseandguestprogram 10. weatherattheconventiondestination 11. desiretogetawayfromroutineofwork 12. possibilitytoexperiencedifferentculture 1 2 3 4 5

5. Ifyouconsideratypicalconferencevisitedbyyou,couldyoupleaseindicatetowhichextentdidit possessthefollowingcharacteristics?
1notatall 2morenothenyes 3somewhatyes 4yes 5absolutelyyes

Nr. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Criteria appealingdestinationimage noveltyoftheconventiondestination extraopportunitiesavailableatthedestination socialandrecreationalactivitiesprovidedbymeetingplanners pre/postconferencesightseeingtoursandleisure opportunities 6. availabilityoffreetime 7. proximitytothecitycentrewithitsrecreationalinfrastructure 8. spouseandguestprogram 9. informationsupportontheextraopportunitiesofthe destination 10. possibilitytoexperiencedifferentculture

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6. Ingeneral,whenattendingaconferencedoyouparticipatein: Nr. 1. leisureactivitiesprovidedbyconferenceplanners 2. leisureactivitiesundertakenonyourowninitiative independentlyoftheconferenceprogram 3. pre/postconferenceprogramsorganizedbymeeting planners Never Rarely Sometimes Always

7. Whichextraconferenceopportunitiesyouusuallymakeuseofwhileattendinganassociation conference?Choose3themostrelevantones. a. Sightseeing(selforganized) b. Guidedtours c. Visitingmuseums,galleries,exhibitions d. Culturalactivitiesandevents(theatres,concerts,festivals) e. Shopping f. Meetinglocalpeople g. Visitinglocalrestaurants h. Nightlife i. Casinos j. Other____________ 8. Doyoutendtoreturntotheconferenceofthesameassociationifyouwerehighlysatisfiedwithits leisureprogram? a. Veryunlikely b. Unlikely c. Somewhatlikely d. Likely e. Verylikely 9. Doyoutendtoreturntothedestinationoftheconferenceifyouwerehighlysatisfiedwiththe leisureprogramandrecreationalactivitiesundertakenatthedestination? a. Veryunlikely b. Unlikely c. Somewhatlikely d. Likely e. Verylikely 10. Whichleisurerelateditemsdoyoutendtotakewithyouwhenundertakingaconferencebusiness trip? a. Photocamera b. Books c. Magazines d. Mapsofthedestination e. Guidebooks f. Sportoutfit 68

g. Bathingsuit h. Other___________ 11. Whichleisurerelateditemsdoyouusuallybringhomefromaconferencebusinesstrip? a. Localsouvenirs b. Localfood c. Postcards d. Guidebooksandbrochuresfromthedestination e. Clothing f. Other____________ 12. Doyouusuallyresearchtheconferencedestinationanditsmainattractions(sights,events,dining venues,bars)priortodeparture? a. Yes b. No c. Sometimes 13. Ifyouthinkofyourconferenceattendanceexperience,whichonewasthemostmemorableforyou intermsofextraconferenceprogram?Couldyoupleaseindicatethenameoftheconference. Name____________________________________________________________________________ Location__________________________________________________________________________ Year_____________________________________________________________________________ Whatisthemostmemorableaboutit?_________________________________________________ RespondentProfile Age 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Gender 1. M 2. F Countryofresidence______________ Industryyouworkin_______________ 69 Below30 3040 4050 5060 60andabove

Positionwithintheorganization: a. b. c. d. e. f. Seniormanager Middlemanager Firstlinemanager Administrative Professional Other

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Appendix2
Respondent Profile
1. Age Cumulative Frequency Valid below 30 30-40 40-50 50-60 Total 20 30 9 8 67 Percent 29.9 44.8 13.4 11.9 100.0 Valid Percent 29.9 44.8 13.4 11.9 100.0 Percent 29.9 74.6 88.1 100.0

2. Gender Cumulative Frequency Valid Male Female Total 33 34 67 Percent 49.3 50.7 100.0 Valid Percent 49.3 50.7 100.0 Percent 49.3 100.0

3. Country of residence Cumulative Frequency Valid Austria Belarus France Germany India Italy New Zealand Scotland Serbia Switzerland Ukraine USA Total 1 17 1 3 4 7 1 1 1 17 1 13 67 Percent 1.5 25.4 1.5 4.5 6.0 10.4 1.5 1.5 1.5 25.4 1.5 19.4 100.0 Valid Percent 1.5 25.4 1.5 4.5 6.0 10.4 1.5 1.5 1.5 25.4 1.5 19.4 100.0 Percent 1.5 26.9 28.4 32.8 38.8 49.3 50.7 52.2 53.7 79.1 80.6 100.0

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4. Industry Cumulative Frequency Valid Academia Advertising Association Management Banking and Finance Business Travel Consultancy Healthcare Hotel business IT Museums Pharmaceutical Public law Trade Travel and Tourism Total 16 4 1 7 2 3 8 1 6 4 8 1 2 4 67 Percent 23.9 6.0 1.5 10.4 3.0 4.5 11.9 1.5 9.0 6.0 11.9 1.5 3.0 6.0 100.0 Valid Percent 23.9 6.0 1.5 10.4 3.0 4.5 11.9 1.5 9.0 6.0 11.9 1.5 3.0 6.0 100.0 Percent 23.9 29.9 31.3 41.8 44.8 49.3 61.2 62.7 71.6 77.6 89.6 91.0 94.0 100.0

5. Position within the organization Cumulative Frequency Valid Senior manager Middle manager First-line manager Administrative Professional Other Total 13 15 6 3 28 2 67 Percent 19.4 22.4 9.0 4.5 41.8 3.0 100.0 Valid Percent 19.4 22.4 9.0 4.5 41.8 3.0 100.0 Percent 19.4 41.8 50.7 55.2 97.0 100.0

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Appendix3 PCAwithVARIMAXrotationforindividualmotivationsofconferenceattendees.

Total Variance Explained Compone nt Initial Eigenvalues % of Total 1 2 3 4

dimension0

Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings % of Total 4.665 .959 Variance 51.828 10.658 Cumulative % 51.828 62.486

Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings % of Total 3.265 2.359 Variance 36.277 26.209 Cumulative % 36.277 62.486

Cumulative % 51.828 62.486 71.045 78.908 84.845 89.094 93.174 97.012 100.000

Variance 51.828 10.658 8.559 7.863 5.937 4.249 4.080 3.838 2.988

4.665 .959 .770 .708 .534 .382 .367 .345 .269

5 6 7 8 9

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

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Appendix4 PCAwithVARIMAXrotationforconferenceperformanceevaluation.

Total Variance Explained Compone nt Initial Eigenvalues % of Total 1 2 3 4

dimension0

Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings % of Total 4.810 1.152 Variance 53.442 12.804 Cumulative % 53.442 66.245 Total 3.212 2.750 Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings % of Variance 35.687 30.558 Cumulative % 35.687 66.245

Cumulative % 53.442 66.245 76.147 83.803 88.912 92.740 95.897 98.538 100.000

Variance 53.442 12.804 9.902 7.656 5.108 3.828 3.157 2.640 1.462

4.810 1.152 .891 .689 .460 .345 .284 .238 .132

5 6 7 8 9

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

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Appendix5
1. How often do you usually attend association conferences? Cumulative Frequency Valid Less than once a year Once a year 2 times a year 3 times a year 4 times a year and more Total 7 13 15 11 21 67 Percent 10.4 19.4 22.4 16.4 31.3 100.0 Valid Percent 10.4 19.4 22.4 16.4 31.3 100.0 Percent 10.4 29.9 52.2 68.7 100.0

2. What is usually the average length of your stay at a conference? Cumulative Frequency Valid 1 day 1 overnight stay 2-3 overnights 4 overnights and more Total 5 9 43 10 67 Percent 7.5 13.4 64.2 14.9 100.0 Valid Percent 7.5 13.4 64.2 14.9 100.0 Percent 7.5 20.9 85.1 100.0

3. When attending a conference how important are for you an appealing leisure program and recreational possibilities provided by conference organizers or a destination? Cumulative Frequency Valid Not important at all Unimportant Somewhat important Important Very important Total 4 10 20 18 15 67 Percent 6.0 14.9 29.9 26.9 22.4 100.0 Valid Percent 6.0 14.9 29.9 26.9 22.4 100.0 Percent 6.0 20.9 50.7 77.6 100.0

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Appendix6
Statistics
N leisure activities provided by meeting planners during conference leisure activities undertaken on your own initiative independently of the conference program pre/post conference programs organized by meeting planners Valid N (list wise) 67 Mean 2.94 Std. Deviation .903

67

3.21

.749

67 67

2.73

.994

leisure activities undertaken on your own initiative independently of the conference program Cumulative Frequency Valid Always Sometimes Rarely Total 27 27 13 67 Percent 40.3 40.3 19.4 100.0 Valid Percent 40.3 40.3 19.4 100.0 Percent 40.3 80.6 100.0

leisure activities provided by meeting planners during conference Cumulative Frequency Valid Always Sometimes Rarely Never Total 18 34 8 7 67 Percent 26.9 50.7 11.9 10.4 100.0 Valid Percent 26.9 50.7 11.9 10.4 100.0 Percent 26.9 77.6 89.6 100.0

pre/post conference programs organized by meeting planners Cumulative Frequency Valid Always Sometimes Rarely Never Total 16 27 14 10 67 Percent 23.9 40.3 20.9 14.9 100.0 Valid Percent 23.9 40.3 20.9 14.9 100.0 Percent 23.9 64.2 85.1 100.0

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Appendix7
Statistics 9. Do you tend to return to the destination 8. Do you tend to return to the conference of the same association if you were highly satisfied with its leisure program? N Valid Missing Mean Std. Deviation 67 0 3.34 1.274 of the conference if you were highly satisfied with the leisure program and recreational activities undertaken at the destination? 67 0 3.43 1.158

8. Do you tend to return to the conference of the same association if you were highly satisfied with its leisure program? Cumulative Frequency Valid Very likely Likely Somewhat likely Unlikely Very unlikely Total 16 14 21 9 7 67 Percent 23.9 20.9 31.3 13.4 10.4 100.0 Valid Percent 23.9 20.9 31.3 13.4 10.4 100.0 Percent 23.9 44.8 76.1 89.6 100.0

9. Do you tend to return to the destination of the conference if you were highly satisfied with the leisure program and recreational activities undertaken at the destination? Cumulative Frequency Valid Very likely Likely Somewhat likely Unlikely Very unlikely Total 12 23 20 6 6 67 Percent 17.9 34.3 29.9 9.0 9.0 100.0 Valid Percent 17.9 34.3 29.9 9.0 9.0 100.0 Percent 17.9 52.2 82.1 91.0 100.0

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Appendix8
Distributionofrespondentsaccordingtotheirfutureintentionstoreturntotheconference/destination.

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