WORLD – Alliance of certified convention bureaus, BestCities Global Alliance, says results of a series of client surveys reiterate the importance of its commitment to quality standards.
Alliance Chairman David Frandsen said: “First of all, BestCities’ Quality Management System (QMS) provides an established set of quality standards across the Alliance. Then, through the annual certification by LRQA (Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance), the Alliance is able to guarantee to clients that all BestCities destinations live up to these standards. This year, the alliance will undergo its 4th annual LRQA audit between August and September”.
Frandsen added that the independent client survey evaluating the performance of the eight cities that make up the Alliance: Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver, acted as a barometer of the ongoing commitment.
Half (103) of the Alliance’s association market clients responded to the surveys within 30 days of their event being held in a BestCities destination.
The survey questions used a rating scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is ‘very poor’ and 10 ‘very good’. Seventy-three per cent of bids by BestCities partners were successful, with 97 per cent of clients reporting their expectations of the host city as being matched or exceeded; while 82 per cent felt that the attendance level at their congress was either “as expected” or “above expectations”.
The delegate boosting service offered by BestCities gained a satisfaction with a 8.07 score.
The average score for meeting planners who would recommend BestCities Global Alliance to their other colleagues was 8.6.
The overall alliance destination score was 8.91 against 12 areas surveyed this year. ‘Value for money’ was the only metric which was rated below 8, at 7.82 this year (against 7.27 last year).
Frandsen noted the Alliance had established a Bid Intelligence Registry with an information bank of client bid requirements. “This sharing of intelligence will help us to service our clients even better. One example is the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology World Congress. It was held in 1998 in Edinburgh, followed by Melbourne in 2001 and then Vancouver in 2005. Copenhagen will host the 2012 congress.”
The Alliance is now ten years old and BestCities recently held its annual Board meeting in Frankfurt followed by the annual Alliance Management Review and Client workshop in Copenhagen.
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Client survey confirms BestCities appeal
