Checking In - Meetings Market Trends

October 6, 2009

Tyler Davidson

The numbers are in, and they’re not pretty. But that’s probably not news to you.

While there’s hope the new administration in Washington, D.C., will succeed in resuscitating the economy, there are a lot of industries and economic recovery tools—the credit market, to name one rather large elephant in the room—that are seemingly on life support.

In December, PKF Hospitality Research forecasted a 7.8 percent decline in U.S. hotel RevPAR (revenue per available room) in 2009, with no quarterly increase in this key hospitality industry statistic until the second quarter of 2010. PKF also predicts a 2.5 percent fall-off in demand coupled with a 2.9 percent increase in supply during the same time period. One major international bank even predicts a 10 percent drop in U.S. RevPAR growth next year.

What does this mean to the average meeting planner? It’s a buyer’s market, of course, but in this instance the buyers don’t have any cash. You don’t need an MBA from Harvard to extrapolate from there.

To take the pulse on Main Street, we conduct a comprehensive Meetings Market Trends Survey every year, and this year we decided to make it even bigger.

Besides the mountain of data we collected from the more than 600 respondents, we’ve included an analysis from American Express Business Travel, targeted career advice from our Career Forum columnist, Sheryl Sookman Schelter, and observations from the heads of the top meetings industry associations.

Let’s hope by the time you read this it’s all irrelevant, but I wouldn’t bet what’s left of your IRA on it.

About the author

Tyler Davidson is the vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today, which publishes the meetings industry trade magazine Meetings Today as well as MeetingsToday.com, various newsletters, webinars, the in-person Meetings Today LIVE! Hosted-buyer events and other meetings and events industry B2B channels.

Tyler has covered the travel trade for nearly 35 years. In his role with Meetings Today, which recently won the prestigious FOLIO: Eddies Award for best magazine issue, Tyler leads the editorial team on its mission to provide the most in-depth meetings content in the industry. Previously, he worked as the Asia, Canada, Pacific Northwest and Western U.S. editor at Travel Weekly magazine and TravelAge West. Before joining the dual editorial staff producing destination sections for Travel Weekly and TravelAge West, Tyler was the Africa, Israel, Middle East, Switzerland and Pacific Northwest editor at TravelAge West. He also undertook general news and feature assignments while working at the magazines.

Besides reporting on the travel trade, Tyler has covered the real estate industry, held various editorial positions at the San Francisco-based national satire magazine The Nose, wrote freelance technology industry pieces and covered the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders for a bilingual newspaper in San Francisco. He has a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University, where he worked in various editorial capacities on its award-winning student magazine, Prism.

Contact: tyler.davidson@meetingstoday.com