Description of competition’s subject

MICE tourism in Lodz Metropolitan Area

by Tomasz Napierala, University of Lodz

Determinants of city’s MICE tourism product

The main purpose of this note is to describe main characteristics of product offered by Lodz Metropolitan Area to the MICE tourists. Zmyslony and Leszczynski (2014) defined city’s business tourism product as all goods and services purchased by business tourists. Goods and services mainly targeted for tourists must be underlined. Attractiveness of discussed product is influenced by the following determinants: access to the international transportation network, quality and effectiveness of internal transport network, tourist information, accommodation and F&B facilities, events’ calendar (meetings, conferences and exhibitions), social, cultural, entertainment and recreational services, shopping facilities (Zmyslony & Leszczynski, 2014).

Moreover, Buhalis (2000) argued that following determinants of city’s MICE tourism product are crucial: ability of enterprises and institutions located in particular city to organize events, transport connections with the world city network, accessibility and competitiveness of business services offered in a city. As Crouch (2010) discussed, determinants of city’s MICE tourism product can be divided into two groups: core resources and attractors and supporting factors and resources. Core resources and attractors include: special events, physiography and climate, culture and history, mix of activities, entertainment, superstructure and market ties. While supporting factors and resources contain: infrastructure, accessibility, facilitating resources, hospitality, enterprise and political will (Crouch, 2010). Global competitiveness of city’s MICE tourism product is affected by the exchange rate of local currency and purchasing power parity (Dwyer, 2011). Nowacki and Zmyslony (2011) indicated following determinants of city’s tourist attractiveness: affective factors, tourist infrastructure, entertainment and F&B facilities, tourist attractions, functional factors and hospitality.

Therefore, to the detailed description of Lodz MICE tourism product, following characteristics were employed:

  • week number of international airline connections,
  • basic characteristic of local convention bureau,
  • number of hotels, hotel rooms, hotel guests and hotel occupancy rate (with particular emphasis on luxury hotels),
  • number of international trade fairs and exhibitions,
  • events’ calendar,
  • quantity and quality of congresses and conferences facilities,
  • audience of cinemas, museums, theaters and music institutions,
  • number of foreign direct investments,
  • number and types of grocery stores.

 

Lodz Metropolitan Area. General information

To better understand the conditions of Lodz Metropolitan Area, in this note three similar Polish metropolitan areas (of Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw), with similar population, were compared. Table 1 depicts general characteristics of mentioned metropolitan areas and their core cities.

Table 1. General characteristics of metropolitan areas of Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw in 2013

CharacteristicLodz MALodz cityPoznan MAPoznan cityWroclaw MAWroclaw city
Population385035711332618754548028574545632067
GDP per capita (2011)324874866946298758773677760425
Registered unemployment rate16.612.37.24.212.95.5
The percentage of individuals with university degrees (2011)15.122.617.830.414.130.0
Source: Central Statistical Office of Poland. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

 

International airline connections

It must be underlined that access to the global city network significantly influences on city’s MICE tourism product (Buhalis, 2000).  Thus, the effectiveness of city’s international airports is widely discussed.

Table 2. Effectiveness of international airports in Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw in 2014

CharacteristicLodz airportPoznan airportWroclaw airport
Number of international flights per week1791124
Number of domestic flights per week02262
Source: www.airport.lodz.pl, www.airport-poznan.com.pl, airport.wroclaw.pl (31.10.2014).

 

Local convention bureau

As Tomczyk (2013) argued, the effectiveness of operating of convention bureaus is affected by their organizational and legal form. Lodz Convention Bureau is a part of the structure of The City of Lodz Office. On the other hand, Wroclaw and Poznan institutions are formally independent NGOs. However, local authorities are main founders of convention bureaus in mentioned cities.

Local hotel industry

Table 3 depicts general characteristics of hotel industry in metropolitan areas and their core cities of Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw. As significant element of city’s MICE tourism product, luxury hotels are emphasized. More detail information about accommodation facilities in Lodz Metropolitan Area you can find in conference paper by Napierala and Lesniewska (2014).

Table 3. Hotel industry in metropolitan areas of Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw in 2013

CharacteristicLodz MALodz cityPoznan MAPoznan cityWroclaw MAWroclaw city
Number of hotels213146502643
Number of luxury hotels05310315
Number of hotel rooms6442857148432197303784
Number of rented hotel rooms per year7332536726317759352222480715752650
Average annual occupancy rate of hotels31.235.232.844.430.354.5
Number of tourists accommodated in hotels per year8324134950315744443801589095659166
Source: Central Statistical Office of Poland. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

 

International trade fairs and exhibitions

In the Table 4, data collected by Polish Convention Bureau, on events organized in particular Polish metropolises, is shown. Information contains all events reported by cities’ convention bureaus.

Table 4. Events in Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw in 2013

CharacteristicLodz cityPoznan cityWroclaw city
Number of congresses and conferences per year154663524
Number of international trade fairs and exhibitions46491
Source: Poland Convention Bureau.

 

Congresses and conferences facilities

Using data of Lodz Convention Bureau and information presented on websites of congresses and conferences establishments, comprehensive characteristic of congresses and conferences facilities in Lodz Metropolitan Area was feasible. It is worth to notice that congresses and conferences facilities are offered by different type of enterprises, depicted below.

Table 5. Typology of congresses and conferences enterprises in Lodz Metropolitan Area.

Type of enterpriseLodz MALodz cityLodz MALodz city
Number of enterprisesMaximum number of seats
1* hotels2132024
2* hotels871605979
3* hotels91219732965
4* hotels165354955
Not-hotels017024418
Source: Author's study. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

Top-10 congresses and conferences facilities in Lodz Metropolitan Area are listed in the Table 6. It must be underlined that most of them are located in the core city – Lodz.

Table 6. Top-10 congresses and conferences enterprises in Lodz Metropolitan Area

NameCityTypeMaximum number of seats
Atlas ArenaLodzNot-hotel14026
Art_InkubatorLodzNot-hotel2569
Double Tree by Hilton LodzLodz4* hotel2336
Entertainment Center MPD Silver ScreenLodzNot-hotel1748
Andel's Hotel LodzLodz4* hotel1479
RubinLodzNot-hotel860
Conference and Equestrian Center CampoverdeLodzNot-hotel785
Lodz PhilhramonicLodzNot-hotel750
Dom Towarzystwa KredytowegoLodzNot-hotel739
Hotel Fabryka WelnyPabianice4* hotel535
Source: Author's study.

In the Table 7, general characteristics of congresses and conferences facilities in Lodz Metropolitan Area are included.

Table 7. Congresses and conferences facilities in Lodz Metropolitan Area.

CharacteristicLodz MALodz city
Number of seats in conference halls and rooms443333341
Number of seats in conference halls and rooms offered by luxury hotels5354955
Average number of seats in conference halls and rooms offered by one establishment221.7775.4
Average number of seats in conference halls and rooms offered by one establishment, excluding Atlas Arena221.7449.2
Average number of seats in conference halls and rooms offered by one luxury hotel535.0825.8
Source: Author's study. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

 

Audience of cinemas, museums, theaters and music institutions

To describe cultural and entertainment facilities, as significant parts of city’s MICE tourism product (Zmyslony & Leszczynski, 2014), both number of institutions like cinemas, museums, theaters and philharmonics and audience were presented in the Table 8. Lodz Metropolitan Area was compared to two similar metropolitan areas of Poznan and Wroclaw.

Table 8. Cultural institutions and their audience in metropolitan areas of Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw in 2013

CharacteristicLodz MALodz cityPoznan MAPoznan cityWroclaw MAWroclaw city
Number of cinemas2641047
Cinemas audience220271503006732132166051239262090228
Number of museums3191618324
Museums visitors19074488123204885291828125931483062
Number of theaters090707
Theaters audience035366302917430286772
Number of phliharmonics010101
Philharmonics audience024450039330055402
Source: Central Statistical Office of Poland. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

 

Foreign direct investments

Table 9 depicts number of foreign direct investments in Lodz, Wroclaw and Poznan and in metropolitan areas of mentioned cities.

Table 9. Foreign direct investments in metropolitan areas of Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw in 2013

CharacteristicLodz MALodz cityPoznan MAPoznan cityWroclaw MAWroclaw city
Number of foreign direct investments133735502664
Source: Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

 

Shopping facilities

Data on shopping facilities in discussed metropolitan areas is shown in Table 10.

Table 10. Shopping facilities in metropolitan areas of Lodz, Poznan and Wroclaw in 2013

CharacteristicLodz MALodz cityPoznan MAPoznan cityWroclaw MAWroclaw city
Number of hypermarkets523318517
Number of supermarkets609313011496100
Number of department stores131323
Number of trade stores061735
Source: Central Statistical Office of Poland. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

 

Events’ calendar

The number of events planned in Lodz and its metropolitan area for 2015 is shown below.

Table 11. Calendar of events in 2015 in Lodz Metropolitan Area.

CharacteristicAll eventsIn Lodz cityIn Lodz MA
January101
February211
March752
April770
May21192
June13104
July652
August542
September12113
October13130
November880
December330
Not specified110
Source: Regional Tourism Organization of the Lodz Voivodeship. Comment: Data for MA (Metropolitan Areas) does not include data for the core city.

 

Literature

  • Buhalis D., 2000, Marketing the competitive destination of the future, Tourism Management, 21, 97–116.
  • Crouch G.I., 2010, Destination competitiveness: An analysis of determinant attributes, Journal of Travel Research 20(10), 1–19.
  • Dwyer L., Mistilis N., Forsyth P. & Rao P., 2001, International price competitiveness of Australia’s MICE industry, International Journal of Tourism Research, 3(2001), 123–139.
  • Napierala T. & Lesniewska K., 2014, Location as a determinant of accommodation prices: Managerial approach, In: Conference proceedings, Eds. M. Kozak, N. Kozak, 7th World Conference for Graduate Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, Istanbul, 687–692.
  • Nowacki M. & Zmyslony P., 2011, The measurement of city image: Urban tourism market segmentation, Current Issues of Tourism Research, 1(2011), 10–18.
  • Tomczyk N., 2013, Zarzadzanie turystyka biznesowa na przykladzie wybranych convention bureaux w Polsce, Praca magisterska napisana w Instytucie Geografii Miast i Turyzmu, Lodz.
  • Zmyslony P. & Leszczynski G., 2014, Identyfikacja sieci powiazan w miejskiej turystyce biznesowej, Studia Oeconomica Posnaniensia, 3(264), 103–120.