The vast majority of respondents (81%) expect favorable overall business conditions over the next year. While this is down slightly compared to pandemic highs, combined with additional findings, the survey’s results indicate a strong industry experiencing robust demand.
Key findings include:
- 38% of respondents say their business is already back to pre-pandemic levels and an additional 27% anticipate that return will happen at some point during 2023. If the projections hold, 65% of meeting pros will be back to pre-pandemic levels of business by the end of the year.
- Cost increases are rampant as the flood of in-person gatherings returns. The most widespread of these: 55% of respondents said F&B costs have increased more than 10%, and 50% said the same about hotel accommodations.
- In-person attendance projections remain overwhelmingly positive with 83% of respondents expecting a favorable showing over the next year. This is the fifth consecutive quarter for which 80% or more of respondents expect favorable in-person attendance.
- For the third consecutive quarter, the percentage of respondents noting the difficulty in filling job vacancies within their organization has dropped 6% quarter over quarter.
“The industry’s confidence continues as meeting professionals persist in expressing optimism in the forms of increasing in-person attendance (83%) and positive business outlook (81%). Budgets are increasing, as are costs, but 22% of meeting professionals report that their budgets are up 10% or more,” said Jessie States, Vice President of MPI Academy, “While the positive outlook extends, it’s the nature of meetings that is changing. When asked what elements contribute the most to successful outcomes, it was people-centric learning, conversations and networking that scored the highest, surpassed only in most cases by the destination itself.”
The spring 2023 Meetings Outlook survey was in the field from Feb. 21 to March 28, receiving responses from a total of 560 MPI members. Meetings Outlook is supported in partnership with IMEX Group. This edition of Meetings Outlook is sponsored by Webex Events (formerly Socio).
For more information please visit https://www.mpi.org/.
