Tourism Management 31 (2010) 147–153

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Tourism Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ tourman

Book reviews

Return on Investment in Meetings and Events: Tools and Tech-niques to measure the Success of All Types of Meetings andEvents, J.J. Phillips, M.T. Breining, P.P. Phillips. ButterworthHeinemann, Oxford (2008). pp I – XXVI and pp 274 (pbk), ISBN:978-0-7506-8338-8

This book is a product of the ROI Institute, Inc. and ties intoa process model that they have developed through extensivework with a wide variety of clients (www.roiinstitute.net) overmany years. The authors present a ROI Methodology and theneight chapters that outline the tools and techniques that wouldallow managers to undertake such evaluations. The book alsoaddresses the issues surrounding reporting, implementing andsustaining the evaluation system. Phillips, Breining and Phillipscorrectly identify that there is a need for managers to be able toidentify the benefits that flow from staff attendance andparticipation in meetings and events – especially as they notethat so many fail to live up to expectations! What we are offeredis an insight into the way they have devised to providea measured and calculable sense of the business benefit ofmeetings and events for the organisation. These are presented inmonetary terms as the tangible and intangible benefits aretranslated into hard cash on the basis that this is the languagethat businesses understand.

The basics of the approach are readily recognisable to anyonefamiliar with undertaking evaluation studies. The return on invest-ment is a simple calculation – based on the business cost ratio (themeeting benefits divided by the costs) and therefore the ROIbecomes the %age figure given by taking the net meeting costsand dividing them by the meeting costs (then multiplying by100). Simple that is if one can identify measurable, comparableand calculable figures for the costs and the benefits identifiedwith a specific meeting. The skill comes in adapting this formulato the evaluation of meetings and events that contain more dimen-sions than the standard economic calculations of investmentreturns. The authors have refined their approach arguing (p. 29)that ‘‘Meeting objectives correspond with the different levels onthe value chain.’’ They propose six levels for evaluation – from Inputobjectives (Level 0) through Reaction (Level 1), Learning (Level 2),Application (Level 3), Impact (Level 4) and ROI objectives (Level5). As they explain (p. 67) ‘‘An ROI objective is typically expressedas an acceptable return on investment percentage .. A 50% ROIindicates that the cost of the meeting is recaptured and an addi-tional 50% earnings (50 cents for every dollar invested) isachieved.’’ The book addresses many of the issues involved indeveloping a reporting system that allows the measurement andthe financial assessment of meetings and events. The advice ondeveloping feedback and assessing data is presented in a straightforward way and contains a considerable amount of usefulcommentary.

The crux of the book hinges on the discussions around theisolating of benefits and the recognitions of these in monetary

terms – the terms thought to be most meaningful to the keystakeholders, the businesses themselves. The authors have givenconsiderable thought to identifying the full range of costs atten-dant on the meeting and on the range of benefits – tangibleand intangible – that can be credited to the meeting. The argu-ments about whether the intangible can be costed and countedhave long been debated but the authors are convinced that thetranslation of the soft or social benefits can be made intoa convincing and therefore credible calculation expressed inmonetary terms. They rehearse arguments about benchmarkingclaims and externally referencing the exchange mechanisms andargue for consistency in the way that these calculations aremade.

For this reader, this does not answer many of the core ques-tions involved in such processes. Meetings and events offermany things to many people and the meanings attached to onemeeting will vary greatly from one individual to another andfrom one organisation to another. The search for equivalence inthe evaluation will mean that someone who begins the meetingunable to do something and improves will have received a greaterbenefit than someone who is already competent and confidentbut has been rewarded by being sent to the meeting for otherreasons. Why else are some meetings located in attractive andmeaningful places? The formula for calculating the benefits tothe latter individual of the trip to Hawaii or the health spa inHungary are more complex than for the former person. Sales orservice performance may not alter but staff morale, motivationand retention may be improved. The benefits to the individualsand to their companies are vastly different and the evaluationmodels must begin from the context of the motivation forsending the delegate rather than from the objectives of themeeting.

This reinforces the need for my favourite section, which comesin Chapter 8 (pp. 161–163) and is entitled ‘‘When You Do notHave a Clue’’. This concerns the use of questionnaires to collectbusiness data and describes the process of trying to identifya specific business objective as much like a fishing expedition.This then develops into a set of 11 questions through which it mightbe possible to identify the benefits, but these questions could easilybe adapted as the basis of a process involvement in any study. Itmight also be a useful section to include in many research methodstext books! It demonstrates the importance of process skills andthe ability to think through and around the techniques outlinedin the book.

The book offers some useful insights into the preparation andimplementation of evaluation but the text should be read with anopen mind. The authors are evangelists for their method andhave a great deal to offer – but it would be better read alongsideother approaches with a more critical approach to what busi-nesses value. In these days of corporate social responsibility, itis distressing to think that monetary values are the only languagethat businesses and their managers understand. A more open

Book review / Tourism Management 31 (2010) 147–153148

sense of evaluation, presenting benefits in their own terms,may produce a broader understanding of the values and benefitsinvolved in developing learning and socially responsibleorganisations.

Alan ClarkeUniversity of Pannonia,

Veszprem 8201, HungaryE-mail address: clarke@turizmus.uni-pannon.hu

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2008.10.003

Tourism Management: Analysis, Behaviour and Strategy,A. Woodside, D. Martin (Eds.). CABI, Wallingford (2008). p. 528Hardback, ISBN: 978-1-84593-323-4

Woodside and Martin set their aims very high in the introduc-tion to their collection claiming that although the book ‘‘providesadvances in tourism management theory (TMT), such advancesare by-products of this book – the focus of TM is on the prize ofincreasing the reader’s wisdom and skills in sense making, decisionmaking and evaluating tourism management actions.’’(p. 1) Theeditors also promise (p. 1) ‘‘in-depth research reports that increasethe reader’s knowledge and expertise’’. These are ambitiousclaims and set a high threshold for themselves and the 26 chaptersthat follow.

The range of the book is broad as the five sections offer every-thing from high-level statistical analysis to grounded theory.There are six parts covering: Introduction to Advancing TourismManagement; Scanning and sense making; Planning; Implement-ing; Evaluating Actions/Process and Performance Outcomes; andAdministering. These titles are in themselves unhelpful as theydo not necessarily relate all that closely to the content that isincluded (or indeed explain why one chapter appears in this partic-ular section rather than that other one). For instance there areseveral chapters that actually deal with marketing but you wouldnever know this from a quick glance at the structure – similarly ifyou looked into the planning section for chapters on tourism plan-ning you would be disappointed. However this sense of disappoint-ment is not the fault of the individual chapters or their authors,which in themselves are very good, but because they do not addressthe topic of tourism planning. Actually the book is probably bestread as a series of independent contributions which occasionallyreinforce or challenge another chapter which also happens to beincluded in the book. The specific chapter titles do give you a clearindication of what you will find there and even if this makes itslighter harder for the first contact with the book, the long-termbenefits are considerable.

In a short review it is impossible to cover the materialspresented within the 27 chapters but this is a real strength of thebook. I apologise to the contributors for not mentioning them byname. There is a plethora of material here that raises issues in chal-lenging and critical ways. You will not agree with all of the authorsall of the time – why should you? There will be chapters that youthink are less useful than others. It would be too easy to say thatthe value of the book lies in those areas where you are less familiarwith the literature and the authors bring you into contact withthose areas that you are less familiar with. For me that was notalways the case, I feel comfortable with the arguments aroundwine tourism, but Chapter 15 on Wine Tourism and Consumers stillgave me pause for thought.

The book will prove invaluable to those who find themselvesleading tourism management courses, with inquisitive studentswho ask questions (or even identify dissertation topics) that fallon the edges of our comfort zones. The element of criticality is

contained within the chapters but is also evident when the authorspresent their findings and, in so doing, challenge your own,sometimes long held, views.

Does the book achieve its aims? I can only pass on my reactionsand try to explore the reasons why you can answer the questionboth positively and negatively. The book has so much in it that Iwill keep going back to it – so the editors have achieved their aimin producing a book that in one sense increases the readers’wisdom. It may irritate and it may use styles of presentation andmethodology that do not sit easily with your own preferred style –but even these chapters will prove useful as a resource over time.By coincidence, I took the book with me when I was speaking tothe Assembly of European Regions on building cultural and heri-tage tourism and the questions turned to the issue of authenticity(as they so often do). I had just had the benefit of reading Chapter10 by Rosenbaum and Wong on ‘‘When tourists desire an artificialculture: the Bali syndrome in Hawaii’’ and found myself respondingto the questions in a different way. I am sure that my interrogatorshad no knowledge of the Bali effect (and indeed they still will not)but the debate in the chapter informed how I framed my answers. Ihave a feeling that this will continue to happen as the insights fromthe different studies percolate through my thinking and will not bea simple one off.

I know that I have an idiosyncratic way of approaching my ownresearch – and be honest, all of us do! – and sometimes I feltuncomfortable with the way issues were conceptualised and thetypes of methodology adopted for their study. It is not that I donot understand the terminology or the techniques of statisticalanalysis but I have a well-established preference for qualitativeresearch – and I would have liked to see more examples ofchapter studies undertaken from this perspective. There are limitsto where survey analysis can take you (and there are times whenI realise that my own studies can benefit from quantitativeapproaches).

The final question to address is whether this collection willimpact on tourism management as Woodside and Martin hope.For me the connections to the practical concerns of everydaytourism management are less clearly elaborated than the linkagesto the academic debates. It would be interesting to introduce thesematerials to a postgraduate course of experienced managers and tosee whether and where they make the connections. The strength ofthe collection which comes from the broad range of topics consid-ered could prove to be a weakness with the manager who is lookingfor something that explicitly addresses their specific area ofconcern.

Take the time to read through this collection and you will finda great deal that stimulates your thinking and on occasion will ques-tion the taken for granted assumptions that you have about anaspect of tourism management. It may not be a comfortable readbut it is challenging. I think, for those who do read through thecontributions here, that it will establish a place for itself in thedebates about many aspects of tourism and of tourism management.Good luck with it – but do not blame me if you end up shouting at