The motives of ambassadors in bidding for international association meetings and events

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Event Management

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Abstract

© 2014 Cognizant Comm. Corp. As destinations contest the rights to host international association-based meetings and events, competitive points of difference in the bidding process can mean the success or loss of a bid. One of these points of difference has been the growth of ambassador programs worldwide. These programs consist of influential, high-profile individuals, representing their particular industry body or association. Ambassadors work together with destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and meetings/ conference professionals in putting forward bids to their association for future events. To understand the motivations of ambassadors in bidding for international meetings and events, an exploratory study employing an online survey was conducted with ambassadors from three programs, one based in Australia, one based in Southeast Asia, and one in the Middle East. The results provide a demographic profile of ambassadors and highlight their motives for actively bidding for international meetings and events. The study adds to knowledge on a topic for which limited research has been undertaken-that of the bidding process for business events-and expands understanding of how ambassador programs, together with DMOs, can contribute to a professional bidding process for globally roaming international association meetings and events.

ISSN

1525-9951

Publisher

Cognizant Communication Corporation

Volume

18

Issue

1

First Page

65

Last Page

74

Disciplines

Business

Keywords

Ambassador programs, Bidding, Business events, Destination marketing organizations (DMOs)

Scopus ID

84940972961

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

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