With the state
of the stock
market rapidly
rising and
falling with greater fluctuation
than the Bay of Fundy
tide, both corporations and
“Main Street” are mired in
debt and doubt.
The common wisdom is that leisure
travel is the first to suffer. Next
in line is business travel, with its
companion the meetings industry in
tow. If you’re like me—on seemingly
every travel-related e-mail
distribution list going—your
inbox is starting to fill with
rate-cut come-ons targeting
the transient market. Look
for the meetings industry to
follow suit as we move further
into a buyer’s market.
Will hotels and other
meeting facilities initiate a fire sale on
the scale of a post-9/11 magnitude?
Everyone’s playing it close to the vest
right now, trying to ride out 2008 before
they make budget assumptions
about next year.
So stay tuned, and also tune in
to our 2009 Meetings Market Trends
Survey webinar Dec. 17 (sign up at
www.meetingstoday.com/webinars)
to find out what major hospitality industry
experts are predicting.
It’s free, and that’s a pretty agreeable
price these days.
