Hospitality UK
Hospitality UK
In today's cutthroat business market, to lure and retain customers companies are taking steps such as organising sumptuous events to give them a good time and keep them on board. Hospitality UK is a relative recent term coined in the business arena, where companies lay on various events to keep their clients happy. Basically, hospitality UK means an entertaining experience for prospective or existing clients in the UK. But the scope of corporate hospitality UK has also been extended to the staff of the UK organisation concerned, to keep them loyal and hard-working.
According to estimates, average growth in the hospitality UK market is set to increase year on year. This indicates the growing importance of sustaining the current client base and building on it through a spectrum of initiatives beyond the basic service side. Businesses that have chosen to ignore this side of the client retention equation have failed to retain clients and lure new ones, and suffered as a result.
While event organisers are intensifying their search for imaginative locations, corporate hospitality UK is fast becoming a primary source of income to many themed venues. At the same time, the UK’s sports venues are attempting to attract more corporate business by operating all year round. This in turn will enable them to build a strong alternative revenue stream. Hospitality UK is already believed to be one of the largest revenue sources for the Rugby Football Union.
The corporate hospitality UK industry still continues to suffer from a lack of research into the effectiveness of corporate events. Companies find it hard to establish their return on investment in corporate hospitality UK and more quantitative and qualitative evidence is needed to do this, in order to justify the spending on client entertaining and staff motivation. Despite the vast sums of money lavished on clients, suppliers and prospects each year by blue-chip companies, corporate hospitality UK suffers from a mixed reputation in the business community. To some, events such as a trip to Ascot, a test match or rugby international provide the perfect opportunity to network with key contacts and, ideally, generate new business. To others, however, they are just a drain on profits.
But the fact is that corporate hospitality UK can be a useful tool for growing businesses. Keeping your existing clients happy is a lot more cost-effective than trying to find new ones. Tailoring the event to your audience is a top priority. Essentially, it’s a case of the more personalised the hospitality, the better. Researching your audience beforehand should help predict what will attract them in the first place, and ensure they have an enjoyable experience. Events like driving days seem to be most effective as there’s no alcohol involved and people chat with a clear head. The problem with, say, a corporate box at a football match is that people often get drunk and forget who's taken them in the first place, which is unlikely to attain the goal of generating future business.
The events a client remembers are generally those that force them to get really involved. Rather than providing rugby tickets, for example, it might be better to consider something like sponsoring a boat on the Global Challenge yacht race and getting to take a few key contacts out sailing several times a year - a great way of getting very close to business partners and clients, which is the whole point of such an activity.
The market has been buoyed in recent years by events such as the 2006 World Cup and also the recovery of the UK tourism industry to pre-2001 levels. Furthermore, the opening of the new Wembley stadium in 2007, with a capacity of over 18,000 corporate seats, boosted demand for corporate hospitality UK during the year.