A Pulse Check on the Meetings and Incentives Landscape

Just as we are seeing across the hospitality industry, service disruptions, price increases and hotel availability continue to be the biggest challenges for meeting and incentive events.

Service levels throughout the hospitality industry are impacting all of us in our personal and professional lives. Among meeting planners, according to an Incentive Research Foundation survey conducted from April 27 to June 17, 2022, with 710 industry respondents, the top concerns among meeting planners continue to be general expense increases and local staffing shortages at Destination Management Companies. For hotels, concerns focus on the ability to maintain and deliver expected service levels and finding and hiring qualified staff.

Meeting and incentive planners continue to have their budgets challenged with price increases being seen in every category of budget management. The Meeting Professional International’s summer quarterly Meetings Outlook survey revealed:

• 57% of respondents believe it is a seller’s market vs. a buyer’s market, up 8% from just last quarter and nearly 20% from fall of 2021.
• More than 25% of survey respondents expect costs of food and beverage, audiovisual, hotel accommodations, staffing and transportation will increase by more than 10% in the next year with food and beverage having the highest expectation for increase.

We continue to see strong demand for upcoming meetings and incentives from our clients; however, availability has challenged some of these events to be flexible with their location and dates. With much pent-up demand in the market, we encourage groups to plan early, securing key vendors as far in advance as possible. Despite the doom and gloom regarding prices and service, industry leaders are optimistic about the future. The same Incentive Research Foundation survey showed 63% of all respondents expected and increase in travel for the next 18 months with the strongest responses coming from Incentive Planners/Third Party Agencies and Destination Management Companies (78% & 63% respectively).

If you are looking for expert planners to assist with your corporate events, reach out to our Fox Meetings and Incentives team!