More than 600 planners completed our annual Meetings Focus Trends Survey this year, revealing that prices continue to cause consternation and the stubbornly sluggish economy tops their list of threats to the meetings industry.
Following is a “sneak peek” at some of the most important survey results. Be sure to tune into our free 2013 Meetings Focus Trends Survey webinar to get the take from top hospitality industry consultancy Smith Travel Research, along with more stats from the survey.
Key Findings
Economic woes remained the most-worrisome industry stressor—about 60 percent of meeting planners across all segments placed the shaky financial condition of the U.S. on the top of their list of fears.
Respondents also noted that the perceived value of the profession is a threat to the meetings industry. This response showed a healthy increase across all segments and was listed by nearly one quarter of government planners; up nearly 16 percent in this year’s survey.
Airline issues represented the biggest fear for about 10 percent of respondents, and increased between 2 percent and 3 percent in every segment except government planners, which decreased by nearly 5 percent this year.
| What will be your biggest challenge when planning meetings in the coming year? | Rate-of-change (2011 vs. 2012) | ||||||||
| Assoc. % | Corp. % | Gov. % | Ind. % | Total % | Assoc. % | Corp. % | Gov. % | Ind. % | |
| Lower budget | 16.1 | 36.5 | 60.0 | 32.0 | -5.3 | -5.9 | -4.4 | 2.6 | -2.8 |
| Declining attendance | 29.0 | 10.3 | 10.0 | 19.9 | 1.2 | 1.6 | -0.1 | -6.4 | 2.2 |
| Decreasing staff | 4.5 | 3.0 | 6.7 | 2.8 | NA | NA | NA | 6.7 | 2.8 |
| Increasing costs (hotels, suppliers, etc.) | 44.6 | 36.5 | 13.3 | 36.5 | 1.1 | 2.0 | -0.7 | -4.7 | 0.3 |
| More transportation difficulties | 0.4 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 1.1 | -0.6 | -0.4 | -0.4 | -1.6 | -0.6 |
| Other | 5.4 | 11.2 | 10.0 | 7.7 | 0.0 | -1.8 | 2.6 | 3.4 | -1.9 |
Challenging Terrain
While the economy and professional clout topped the worry list of respondents when it comes to the meetings industry as a whole, lower budgets and increasing costs were the items that hit closest to home on a personal level.
Although more than 30 percent of corporate and independent planners listed a lower budget as what they expect to be the biggest challenge to their job next year, only 16 percent of association planners thought it would be their paramount problem.
A depressing 60 percent of government planners expect to have fewer financial resources to work with in 2013. The number of planners who put decreasing budgets as their biggest challenge is on the wane, however.
Increasing costs were a chief concern for a healthy number of respondents across all segments, but only registered with a little more than 13 percent of government planners.
| What do you believe is the biggest threat to the meetings industry? | Rate-of-change (2011 vs. 2012) | ||||||||
| Assoc. % | Corp. % | Gov. % | Ind. % | Total % | Assoc. % | Corp. % | Gov. % | Ind. % | |
| The economy | 59.9 | 62.1 | 58.6 | 55.2 | -10.4 | -14.6 | -9.9 | -10.2 | -6.9 |
| Fuel prices | 4.5 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 5.5 | 1.9 | 2.8 | 0.2 | -1.6 | 3.4 |
| Airline issues (fares, lift, service, etc.) | 7.7 | 9.9 | 0.0 | 11.6 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 2.5 | -4.9 | 2.8 |
| Virtual meetings | 10.8 | 8.2 | 3.4 | 10.5 | -0.6 | 3.2 | -1.9 | -4.7 | -2.5 |
| Perceived value of profession | 12.2 | 15.1 | 24.1 | 11.0 | 5.2 | 3.2 | 8.7 | 15.9 | 1.4 |
| Perceived value of meetings, ROI | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.7 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Government regulations | 1.4 | 1.3 | 6.9 | 0.0 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Low budget/funds | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.1 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Other | 2.7 | 1.3 | 6.9 | 3.3 | -0.6 | 0.6 | -1.3 | -1.3 | -0.9 |
Perception Not an Issue?
One interesting revelation from this year’s survey was the retreat of “perception” issues as it relates to destination and facility selection. Perhaps the “AIG Effect” is finally going out with the tide?
More than 18 percent fewer planners responded that public perception issues affected their choice of destinations, with corporate and independent planners registering the biggest swings (although corporate planners still lead the pack, with more than 58 percent saying “splashy” destinations affect their choices).
Facility selection perception issues also registered a similar decline, but were still prevalent for government planners.
