The turbulent world economy has replaced rising travel costs as the leading concern among meeting planners, according to results from the August 2011 MPI Business Barometer.
The bi-monthly survey, which seeks input from senior-level meeting planners, reported that 69 percent of respondents considered actions by the U.S. Congress as well as the state of the U.S. and global economies to be the leading trends influencing meetings right now. By contrast, the June survey reported that only 23 percent of planners listed these as top concerns.
Other findings from the survey indicated that rising airfares are taking a negative toll on organizations planning long-distance travel, that meeting attendance levels are remaining consistently higher than last year and that spending per meeting continues to show slight growth.
The full results are available at www.mpiweb.org.
