MICEBOOK - LUXE REPORT 5 - Flipbook - Page 15
Decision Drivers
When asked what their most important deciding factor is when
booking luxury events/incentives, 38% of buyers ranked
experiences as their highest priority, followed by budget for 24%
and destination, also 24%. Meanwhile, when we asked suppliers
the same question, more than half (53%) said budget was the top
deciding factor for clients, followed by access (42%) and
destination (5%).
During a discussion at the LUXE event about these stats, the topic
of rising costs and the impact this is having on budgets was raised,
especially the high cost of luxury hotels and minimum F&B spend
requirements being imposed.
Corporate buyer Maria Tsierkezos, who was responsible for
incentive programmes at a major telecoms company, says that
rising costs are making balancing the budget even harder than
usual.
“As a business, our primary objective was always to make sure that
the ROI and the KPIs add up, and that it stacked up for us and for
our partners who were oen sponsoring or partnering with the
company to put on an incentive.
Our budgets weren't going up, but the cost of
everything else is, and hotel costs are huge
right now,” she explains.
“We were having to look closely at where to make cuts without
sacrificing on the experience. Do we save costs in terms of the level
and cost of the accommodation we are staying in and spend more
on immersive experiences? Or do we say that the hotel is amazing
enough, and that it’s an experience in itself, so we remove one of
the additional experiences from the programme. It’s a delicate
balancing act, that has always been there to be fair, but its certainly
trickier right now.”
When addressing the difference between the responses from
buyers and suppliers around experiences being a top deciding
factor – with buyers giving it top priority and suppliers not ranking
it – Ulterior Events MD Graham Alderman says that this can be
explained by the two-layer enquiry process.
“It makes sense. As agents we are selling into the end user, so the
focus for us is selling the experience and destination. Once the
client has bought into that from us, ultimately, we then go to
partners and are focused on geing the best price, which probably
explains why they feel like budget is our biggest deciding factor.”
However, the fact that buyers rate experiences so
highly does create opportunities for suppliers to
increase their focus on experiences and move the
conversation away from being purely around
budget. Luxury hotels could also potentially
consider including an additional experience or
experiences for groups within their rates to add
value and help clients elevate the event/incentive
and justify the high costs internally.
15
