The meetings and events industry is readying for a much-needed comeback and sooner than many expected.
Findings from the 2022 Global Meetings and Events Forecast, the 11th
annual report produced by American Express Meetings & Events, a
division of American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), were
positive.
“While we are all eager to see the pent-up demand for meetings and
events fully realised, we recognise that recovery will not be a straight
line and we can’t get there by simply repeating what we’ve done in the
past,” said Gerardo Tejado, GBT’s Senior Vice President of Value
Development and General Manager of Meetings & Events.
“As
we look to 2022, we expect the optimism, resourcefulness and innovation
we’ve seen in the sector over the past two years lead to a new era of
thoughtful, tech-forward, responsible M&E (Meetings & Events)
strategies.”
Two-thirds (67%) of respondents believe in-person meeting levels will
return to their pre-pandemic numbers within one to two years.
Meetings and events are projected to grow next year, with 81% of
events taking place in 2022 expected to have at least an in-person
component. Budgets are also increasing for events with 64% of
respondents indicating that they are boosting their budgets.
However, it will not be business as usual. Many meetings and events
planners are taking the lessons that they learnt during the pandemic to
plan events with more value, effectiveness and sustainability.
Virtual
components will not go away with hybrid meeting platforms gaining
traction to reach wider audiences. Since the pandemic, organisations
have realised the value of internal meetings, with internal and training
meetings projected to see the largest growth.
Broken
down by region, the meeting professionals in the Asia Pacific region
are fairly positive about 2022. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) said they
would rank their optimism level as eight or higher on a scale of 1-10,
and 58 percent believe their career options are good to excellent.
Meeting professionals in Central and South America are the most
optimistic about 2022, 87% ranked their optimism level as 8 or higher on
a scale of 1 to 10, while 82% believe their career options are good to
excellent.
The meeting professionals in North America are also strongly
optimistic about a recovery in 2022, with 74% of its meeting
professionals rating their optimism level as eight or higher, on a scale
of 1-10. North America also resumed in-person meetings and events with
31% doing so already in June and July of this year. It is also the
region most likely to have events already planned for 2022.
In Europe, meeting professionals were more guardedly optimistic about
the comeback, 59% had an optimism level of eight or higher on a scale
of 1-10; the lowest of the four regions.
The meeting professionals in the Asia Pacific region are fairly
positive about 2022. Nearly two-thirds (64%) said they would rank their
optimism level as eight or higher on a scale of 1-10, and 58% believe
their career options are good to excellent.
Source: TravelPulse