Verifying the economic impact of convention attendees on the local economy in the Republic of China on Taiwan

Convention travel has been growing rapidly throughout the world in recent years and becoming a critical component of the hospitality and travel industry. Hosting of conventions, especially international conventions, can be used by host countries as part of a strategic marketing plan to publicize modern development, traditional culture, and tourism resources. It also stimulates economic growth in the hosting country. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences between the expenditures of delegates staying in hotels and delegates not staying in hotels in each category. It was expected that most of delegates staying in hotels were foreigners and most of delegates not staying in hotels were local people. A questionnaire was developed by using the categories of the 1993 IACVB Convention Income Survey as a base and executed in Taiwan. The subsequent data allowed the comparison between expenditures of the delegates staying in hotels and the delegates not staying in hotels. Overall, the average spending per delegate was US$ 621.62 in this sample study. The delegate staying in a hotel spent an average of 6.79 times the amount the delegate not staying in a hotel in this 4 day meeting. Recommendations for further studies were suggested. Additional research would help Taiwan determine the economic impact of the convention industry on the local economy in the future. Such research would also serve as a base for the convention industry positioning itself to receive future government support