Now Trending: Optimism About Meetings Industry

October 29, 2024

Despite challenges, meeting and event professionals are optimistic about the health of the industry, according to a new forecast from Amex GBT.

Optimism reigns even as meeting and event professionals continue to struggle with global inflation, ongoing staffing shortages and ever-higher attendee expectations, according to the 2024 Global Meetings & Events Forecast from Amex Global Business Travel (Amex GBT). In fact, 75% of the more than 500 meeting professionals surveyed said they feel optimistic about the industry’s health. Part of the reason for that optimism may be that they’re seeing both the number of in-person meetings and budgets beginning to accelerate — 70% said they expect to see attendee numbers to reach pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year. More than a quarter said they’d already reached or exceeded 2019 levels by mid-summer this year, while another 42% said they expect to get there by year’s end.

“Our forecast highlights a strong and optimistic outlook for the meetings and events industry,” said Gerardo Tejado, Senior Vice President, Professional Services, Amex GBT. “In-person meetings continue to dominate with prioritization of attendee engagement, sustainability, and cutting-edge technology like AI to enhance the experience.”

Another reason for optimism is that budgets also are starting to trend upwards, said two-thirds of respondents. And their top priority for using those budget increases include investing in “improving the onsite experience” through enhanced content, venues and destinations.

However, the projected increase in overall meeting spend is balanced out by the expected increase in cost-per-attendee, which are anticipated to be up between 3.5% and 3.9%, depending on the type of event, with client/advisory board meetings at the low end, conferences/trade/shows/product launches in the mid-range, and senior leadership/board meetings/incentives at the high end of the increase range. Incentives are expected to cost the most, at a predicted $865/person, not including airfare.

To cut costs, almost a quarter said they would reduce the number of room nights — even as room rates begin to moderate due to an easing in leisure business, there’s still a supply shortage in many destinations that are keeping price higher and availability more difficult to secure. Next on the cut list are off-site optional activities, food and beverage, and sustainability initiatives.

As was the case for 2024, meeting professionals are predicting that internal meetings will continue to be the most frequent type of meeting they plan next year — and the least expensive, with a predicted cost of $538 per attendee. Almost half of those will be held at hotels, more than a third will be held in a different city, and 35% plan to include social activities for networking.

Of all the challenges they expect to face next year, location availability topped the list, according to the report. This may in part be due to the fact that, although they expect lead times to have increased slightly over the course of 2024, they still are concerned that lead times will continue to be too short and unpredictable due mainly to delays in securing budget approvals. Those delays can make it hard to get the dates, rates and venues they want to secure, along with a continuing shortage of dates and rates in some destinations.

Technology also continues to be a key force in the industry, especially artificial intelligence (AI), which half said they are putting at the top of their priority list for 2025, followed by mobile apps. Among the ways they plan to use AI are to improve the attendee experience through attendee matchmaking, content creation, theme development, and tracking attendee engagement.

Sustainability also is important for more than half of those surveyed, with 54% saying it’s highly important to their planning for 2025. Almost half said they have already established clear sustainability goals and action plans, which include waste management and eco-friendly food and beverage options. Eighty-six percent also said they either already have or are planning to implement diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) best practices.

See the full results of the 2025 Meetings & Events forecast by Amex GBT here.