Environmental and social responsibility of business in the congress and exhibition industry

The St. Petersburg State University of Economics, 29 Sadovaya str., St. Petersburg, Russia.

^* Corresponding author: luhor@inbox.ru

Abstract

The place of congress and exhibition activities in the system of business tourism is shown, general approaches to assessing the contribution of tourism to the destination economy are systematized and analysed in terms of their use in the meeting industry. Four basic models for estimating the multiplier effects of tourism are presented. The analysis showed that the “input-output” model has certain advantages over other models, specifically, that it allows taking sectoral features into account during the analysis, since the assessment algorithm focuses on cross-sectoral links. In order to develop a methodological apparatus for assessing the contribution of congress and exhibition services to the development of a destination, a group of indicators, according to which it is advisable to carry out an assessment, has been proposed, among which are four basic groups that include specific indicators of assessment: a group of economic and social indicators; a group of indicators related to the promotion of destination on national and world markets; a group of business indicators; a group of indicators of research intensity of destination industries. Recommendations for the development of a system of training and advanced training of specialists for the congress and exhibition industry have been made.