The U.S. concern over rising fuel and travel costs continues to headline trends. As in April, more than 20 percent of U.S. meeting and event professionals say they fear rising fuel and airfare costs will have a negative effect on face-to-face meetings volume. While the current effect is not significant, meeting and event professionals predict the continued high fuel and airfare costs will become an industry challenge.
In April, concerns over travel costs were restricted to U.S. meeting and event professionals. In June, a small percentage of European meeting and event professionals (3 percent) also expressed concern. Meanwhile, U.S. planners cited add-on hotel costs such as Internet, parking, service and vendor charges as a rising problem. On the other hand, unease regarding the lack of Congressional agreement for the U.S. federal budget has abated, and European professionals no longer express worry of negative trends from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Employment for meeting and event professionals continues to strengthen. The Europe and U.S. regions both indicate continued growth in full-time, part-time and contract employment. And the number of hiring companies has grown steadily for the past 12 months. Strongest employment growth in the U.S. is in contract and full-time employment. European meeting and event professionals report strongest growth in contract and parttime employment.
Current and predicted business conditions continue to improve at a faster rate than any time since the end of 2008. In June, 73 percent of Business Barometer respondents indicate current business conditions are favorable, up from 64 percent in April. U.S. and European respondents both indicate net improvements in current business levels between 3 percent and 4 percent.
Projected business levels remain high, showing an anticipated 4 percent improvement in the coming months. However, some U.S. meeting and event professionals have slightly lowered their projections due to uncertainty over the rate of economic recovery, the first rise in this concern since December. European and U.S. respondents also report a 1 percent increase in attendance, year-on-year.
A possible new trend comes in the form of add-on hotel fees for a variety of services that were not separately billed in the past.
