On 23rd September 2014, the Krakow Arena, Poland’s largest sports and entertainment venue, hosted the conference concluding the five-year project KRAKOW IMPACT, carried out jointly by the Krakow Convention Bureau, the Foundation of the Krakow University of Economics, HES-SO Valais University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland and the Krakow Festival Office , the operator of the ICE Kraków Congress Centre.

The conference concluded the project “Steering the meetings industry in Krakow”: evaluation and monitoring of the economic impact of the meetings industry on Krakow’s economy with the use of good practices from Switzerland", co-financed by Switzerland under the Swiss Programme of Cooperation with New EU Member States.

The main idea behind the KRAKOW IMPACT was to estimate the size of the business meetings sector in Krakow and its value for the city’s economy. This goal was achieved, and now the industry has a tool which will help it to follow current trends and adjust its services to the rapidly developing Meetings Industry market, to the needs of final customers, i.e. meeting participants, and intermediaries – i.e. event organisers.

Pursuant to the project concept, three groups of business meetings were identified:

- congresses and conferences, as well as other meetings of similar nature, such as seminars, symposiums or conventions,
- training courses, incentive events and other corporate events,
- fairs and business exhibitions.

The output of two-and-a-half-year-long cooperation between researchers from Poland and Switzerland and the industry was presented at the conference. In 2013, 3 413 meetings were organised locally. Three out of four such meetings were held in hotels, in view of the shortage of conference-congress facilities. Over a half of the meetings lasted more than 1 day. Every fourth congress or conference held in the capital of Malopolska was devoted to technology, and every tenth to ICT. International events accounted for more than one fourth of the total number of meetings; 70% of all events were commissioned by businesses.

It was calculated that every participant in the first two groups of events spent on average PLN 2 098 in Krakow, of which PLN 733 was spent on the conference fee, PLN 638 on accommodation, and PLN 156 on catering services. A participant in a fair or an exhibition in Krakow spent PLN 1023, on average, due to a different nature of the event, whilst the exhibitor at the fair spent PLN 15 791 and the individual expenses of its representative amounted to PLN 2 439.

In 2013 all meetings in Krakow generated nearly PLN 1 067.9 million, accounting for around 2.37% of Krakow’s gross product. What’s important, the meetings industry also created jobs. On average, one meeting for a hundred participants created 4.89 jobs for one year and all meetings held in Krakow in 2013 created more than 12 thousand jobs for one year.
The estimate amount of taxes and charges generated by the MICE industry which went to the City of Krakow budget exceeded PLN 89 million, accounting for 2.4% of the city’s total budget.

For more information on the KRAKÓW IMPACT visit: www.krakowimpact.pl and www.icekrakow.pl

DOWNOLAD Report summarising the last stage of the kraków impact project