Definition: Congress travel

Category: Tourism

Definition:

Congress travel is that travel which involves all participants who, changing their usual activity and usual environment, come to a multilateral gathering organised around a previously established, advertised theme.

Comments:

· This excludes all meetings not organised on multilateral bases, such as routine business meetings. The corporate meeting market should be considered another class of travel.

· In order for a meeting to be considered a congress, it requires a previously established, advertised theme, so the organiser has to promote and sell the meeting.

· All themes can be considered congress subjects, from academics to sports and religious meetings. However, more restrictive criteria are used in statistics on congress tourism, excluding certain general and open-public meetings.

· The congress participant contributes in situ to the production, running and development of a congress. His assistance may or may not be paid. The fundamental characteristic is that he helps in situ. Thus, for example, speakers, organisers and interpreters are all congress participants. Persons contributing to lodging or transport are not participants. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/KS-28-00-599-__-I-EN.pdf