The 2008 Meetings Market Report
revealed a convention sector that was growing and healthy, and an
association sector that hosted more total meetings but spent less
money to do so and was playing to slightly fewer attendees. The
number of conventions rose to 13,700, 8 percent over 2005; the
number of convention attendees increased 4 percent to 19.7 million,
and expenditures on these events rose 3 percent to $34.6
billion.
As for association meetings other than
conventions, the total number of events rose 8 percent to 227,000,
while the number of attendees fell by just 1 percent to 37.5
million, and the dollars spent declined 9 percent to $38.1
billion.
Annual meetings
Supporting the growth in conventions,
associations spent $30.4 billion on their major gatherings, while
their attendees contributed more than $4 billion. Those delegates
spent an average of $1,590 per convention, up 9 percent from the
$1,460 they laid out in 2005. The associations themselves spent an
average of $306,200 in 2007 on conventions.
Most of the associations that employed
the planners surveyed held a major convention (90 percent). The
bulk of these were held annually (75 percent). A much smaller
number (13 percent) said their organizations held major conventions
twice a year or even every other year (5 percent). The largest
piece of the convention expenditure pie (35 percent) went to food
and beverage, while hotels accounted for 18 percent.
October, once again, was the most
popular month to hold a convention, as 18 percent of the
association planners said their organizations scheduled their major
events then. November came in second (12 percent), followed by
April and September (10 percent each).
As with 2003 and 2005, about a quarter
(24 percent) of respondents said their most recent conventions were
held in the South Atlantic region of the United States (Florida;
Georgia, Maryland; North Carolina; South Carolina; Virginia; and
Washington, D.C.). The Pacific states (Alaska, California, Hawaii,
Oregon and Washington) were next, with 15 percent of planners
placing their most recent convention in the region, followed by the
Mountain states (Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada and
Utah) and the East North Central region (Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin), with 14 percent each.
Hotels were the preferred site for
conventions, cited by 56 percent of the sample, while 32 percent
used convention centers and 12 percent chose “other.” Trade shows
were part of the plan for 65 percent of the gatherings, taking up
an average of 56,000 square feet, the same amount as was reported
in the 2006 study.
Convention attendees most often slept
at downtown hotels, as reported by 62 percent of association
planners, followed by nongolf resorts (24 percent), suburban hotels
(15 percent), suite hotels (12 percent), airport hotels (8
percent), golf resorts (7 percent), gaming facilities (5 percent),
residential conference centers (3 percent), other facilities (2
percent) and cruise ships (1 percent). Two percent of the sample
said some of their events did not use overnight accommodations. Not
surprisingly, convention attendees paid more for their rooms in
2007, their bills averaging $172 per night, an increase of 19
percent over the $145 delegates were paying two years earlier.
Association planners reported taking a
bit longer to put together conventions in 2007. They took an
average of 20.9 months from the beginning of the planning process
to the selection of the facility, and 39.1 months, overall, from
the start of the planning process until the event was held. Those
surveyed two years ago reported that planning a convention took
33.5 months.
