Meeting News - September 8, 2008 - (Page 36)

MN Exclusive Research State of International Meetings: It’s All About the Market MN asks planners what ﬁnally pushes meetings over the border line amid weak dollar, slow economy, rising airfares sales and marketing, reported that the “number of re meeting planners really keeping events clos- international meeting requests from clients has er to home and eschewing non-U.S. events in signiﬁcantly decreased this year due to the weakthe face of a bad economy, chaotic airline travel, ened dollar, airfare increases, and uncertainty and dismal exchange rates? In MeetingNews’ latest [over] the economy.” survey of 601 subscribers, 46 percent of responWhether planners are increasing or cutting back dents are planning international events for their on international events, concerns over the econocompanies and organizations. Among those plan- my and security overseas dominate respondents’ ning international events, the average number views. According to the survey, 41 percent of of non-U.S. meetings per year is 3.7, with respondents said they were concerned about MN Exclusive most respondents saying they plan two such Research the value of the dollar in their event planning events a year. this year. A little more than one-third—35.8 Jennifer Baker, marketing and program manag- percent—said volatility in destinations was a siger at meeting planning ﬁrm Bucom International, niﬁcant factor in meetings management this year. said she is planning more international events this To deal with these challenges, Baker said her year. company is working with venues that will lock in “Many of our events are investigator meetings exchange rates at the time of contract, choosing for clinical trials being run overseas—both eastern destinations based on the lowest average airfare for Europe and Asia-Paciﬁc,” she said. “We follow the anticipated delegation, and communicating to where our market takes us.” attendees and stakeholders about travel restricHowever, that’s not the case at Alpharetta, GA’s tions, visa issues, and express shipping well in VenueQuest, where Angela Gennari, director of advance. “We are recommending international destinations that are still a good value and offer the experience and atmosphere that our clients are seekINTERNATIONAL REGIONS IN WHICH MEETINGS ARE ing,” said Baker. “Taking the time to educate our HELD: Almost half of all subscribers (46%) plan off-site clients on security issues and visa requirements is meetings in regions outside the U.S. Almost half key to ensuring the comfort of attendees traveling (42%) have planned or are considering planning overseas.” In addition, “some European hotels are meetings in the Western Hemisphere, and a quarter offering special incentives for American groups (23%) in the Eastern Hemisphere. and will guarantee ﬂat rates in U.S. dollars in order North America to make it more economical to travel across the (Canada, 37.7% Mexico, Atlantic for meetings,” agreed Gennari. and Bermuda) The value of the dollar is seen as one of the Central & South 10.0% America biggest factors in the low number of groups headed to Europe. While projecting overseas budgets far 16.5% Caribbean into the future remains problematic for planners, the damage that the dollar’s slide has wrought has Europe 19.5% been deep. And, now that the economy is mired down— Africa 4.1% recession or not—planners are ﬁnding it difﬁcult to replace international events with domestic substitutions. After years of enjoying relatively cheap Middle East 3.0% fares, negotiable hotel rates, and big budgets, planners were able to push the envelope with exotic Asia-Paciﬁc 12.4% destinations. If a company sent top performers to 0% 5% 10% 15 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% Rio for an incentive in 2007, for example, sending Source: 601 of MeetingNews survey respondents a group to South Beach may seem like a step down. By Corrie Dosh A What’s Being Held NUMBER & TYPES OF MEETINGS PLANNED: The average MeetingNews subscriber is involved in planning 36 off-site meetings each year (median=18). Virtually all plan meetings in the U.S. (94%), and 36 percent plan international meetings. The most frequently planned meetings are management/board meetings (77%), training/education events (69%), special events (70%), and trade shows/conventions (69%). 93.6% Meetings within the U.S. 19.7 6.0 Percent Planning This Type Of Meeting Average Annual Number Of Meetings* Median Annual Number Of Meetings* 35.7% Meetings outside the U.S. 3.7 2.0 Home Half of the Field 0 20 40 60 80 100 Source: 601 of MeetingNews survey respondents The monetary challenge can be seen also in the locations where planners are holding international meetings. While respondents said they are, in fact, planning many international events, the vast majority of groups are going just over the border. In 2008, just 23 percent of respondents are planning events outside the Western Hemisphere. Forty-two percent of respondents said they’ll be closer to their home time zones, with 37.7 percent planning events in North America, 16.5 percent planning events in the Caribbean, and just 10 percent planning events in Central or South America. For Eastern Hemisphere hotspots, 19.5 percent of respondents are planning European meetings, 12.4 percent in Asia-Paciﬁc, 4.1 percent in Africa, and 3 percent in the Middle East. r Contact Corrie Dosh at corrie.dosh@nielsen.com www.meetingnews.com 36 MeetingNews September 8, 2008 http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/research/index.jsp http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - September 8, 2008

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