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.
