Interview about the establishment of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau

Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau, Promoting Intensive City Marketing

Start of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB)

The Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) made its debut by saying that it will take the exclusive charge to host international events in Daegu. About 30 representatives and executives of local organizations and companies, including Daegu City, EXCO, Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Daegu Tourism Association, hotels, airline companies, travel agencies and convention planning agencies, hosted the inaugural general meeting at 11 oclock on January 22 in EXCO and elected Paik Chang-gohn, the President of EXCO, as the first chief director of the organization. The Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) is a non-profit corporation and Daegu is the first region of establishing the convention bureau. Since EXCO opened in April 2001, the Daegu-Gyeongbuk area has received offers to host various international exhibitions and conventions in full-scale. Thus, the establishment of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) will only advance Daegu-Gyeongbuks exhibition and convention industry as well as represent the image of Daegu City. In addition, a Daegu-Incheon direct line was established on February 10 and the Gyeongbu Express Train is running. Traffic problems, which had been an obstacle in the hosting of international events, are now removed making the region a more likely venue for worldwide events. The Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) will mainly work to maintain public relations to host conventions and encourage tourist activity, and will support the host of the convention, perform various researches and publish data, join and exchange with convention-related domestic and international organizations, and operate convention-related educational and academic programs. This year, the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) will open an explanatory meeting for convention hosting in the U.S. and in Europe, and has seven other projects including the operation of publicity booths in domestic and international convention fairs, the training of the professional convention workforce, and the supporting of activities for convention hosts.

Interview about the establishment of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) How is the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) operated?

1. What is the Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB)?

The Convention & Visitors Bureau is an organization conducting marketing and operation work for convention and tourism sites to host international conferences and visitors. Likewise, it plays a role as a bridge between visitors and convention industry-related companies in the city and leads corporations to host and support international conferences, exhibitions, incentive tours, and other events. It aims to perform publicity and marketing services efficiently as a mediator between potential visitors and local industries.

How was the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) established and who joined the organization?

Due to the publicity from EXCOs grand opening, the construction of first-class hotels and the expansion of international airline routes to accommodate the growing exhibition industry, the establishment of a hosting-specialized organization was proposed to promote conventions as well as to improve Daegu citys environment as an international convention venue. The organization made its start by supporting the exhibition and convention industry through conferences and committee meetings, with the general inaugural meeting held on January 22. The Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau has a special role because it is the first time that a local autonomous entity has a corporation type of bureau in the nation. The members of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau include Daegu City, EXCO, 15 hotels in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk area, two tourist restaurants, two general travel agencies, three universities (represented by professors), seven exhibition and convention agencies, Daegu Sangeu, Daegu City Tourism Association, and three economic organizations like the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Research and Development Institute.

3. What is the strategy of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau to host conventions?

The secret of success in convention marketing is place marketing, where the whole city becomes a commodity. Therefore, we are planning to build up the city image of Daegu as well as concentrating on hosting recognizable and well-known international conferences and events based on Daegus current conditions and local industries. For example, we will focus on hosting specified areas covering textiles, oriental medicine, optics, and metals and machinery, which are related to local industries, to maximize their distribution. Also, in accordance with Daegu Citys industrial policies, we will concentrate on hosting the bio and IT industries, as well as Solar City international conferences and environment-related conventions to match with Daegus image as a ‘Green City’.

4. How is the organization of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureaus office and what detailed business plans do you have?

At the first stage, the office will consist of about five members, including employees sent form Daegu City and EXCO, and managed as a type of corporation. Then it will be organized as a foundation afterwards. We are planning to host international conferences and join international organizations step by step. The plan is also to invite overseas convention experts including overseas meeting planners and travel agents, to send employees for overseas publicity activities to host conventions and to learn from the foreign convention industry, and to invite diplomatic corps and economic associations in Korea to the festivals held in Daegu. We will also send a delegation of the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau to host the Sola r City International Conference.

5. How will you raise funds for the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau and how are other foreign convention bureaus operated?

The fund raised for the Convention & Visitors Bureau is used to sponsor conventions in the city and will be used to develop the region’s economy and industries. In the United States, to secure their funds for hosting visitors and city marketing without asking residents to share the expenses, bureaus introduced taxes for lodging and utilized these as a fund to host conventions. The city of Columbus imposes 15.75% of lodging tax and Seattle, Anaheim, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Memphis, Knoxville, Dallas, Washington and other major cities levy more than 13% of lodging tax or hotel tax. Besides these lodging taxes, membership fees charged from bureau members are also a source of the fund and city, county and state governments supply subsidies for CVB. Occasionally, the state government provides a subsidy or matching fund for convention-related businesses or visitor-related services. In the United States, the fund consists of 77% of public capital and 23% of private capital. In Europe, the fund depends on hotel room tax (53%), government subsidy or general tax (24%), membership fee (5%) and other miscellaneous charges such as restaurant tax and other income sources. In Japan, prefectures and cities provide 23.5% and 48.7% of the fund, respectively, and other private corporations, including the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, supply the rest. The Japanese convention bureaus are run with approximately 0.5 billion to 1.2 billion Yen of fundamental assets, as well as subsidies, donations, tourism promotion funds, other business incomes, and membership fees from 150 to 700 regular members, special members and supporting members. The Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau will provide for its fund by collecting 2% of sale revenue as special membership fees related to the convention bureau or to Daegu citys hosting events.