The Effectiveness of Convention and Exhibition Websites A Transatlantic Comparison and Future Scenario

Meeting planners are now frequently using the Web as a resource for finding site information, while the Internet has also become increasingly important on the supply side of the convention and exhibition business as a marketing tool. Meeting planners are increasing their productivity by utilizing the Internet. However, the fast growth in the popularity of the Web has resulted in a fragmented approach to digital destination marketing, particularly in the convention and exhibition sector. The purpose of this study was to investigate the existing situation in digital destination marketing and identify the overall performance and effectiveness of convention and visitors bureau (CVB)/tourist board and convention/exhibition (CE) centre Websites based on the modified Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach. Even though leading destinations, such as the US and the UK strategize through internet marketing applications, findings showed that the websites of CVB and CE of both these countries had relative strengths and weaknesses. The CE centre and CVB/tourist board websites tend to be loosely integrated. Additionally, the websites provided by CVB/tourist board contains more information for visitors and may often contribute more to confusing rather than informing and educating meeting planners. Marketing implications for destination and convention/exhibition management is presented and a future scenario for convention/exhibition marketing is discussed