About two-thirds of surveyed meeting and event professionals expect in-person meeting levels to return to their pre-pandemic numbers within two years, according to a new survey from American Express Meetings & Events, a division of American Express Global Business Travel.
"While we are all eager to see the pent-up demand for meetings and events fully realized, we recognize that the recovery will not be in a straight line, and we can't get there by simply repeating what we've done in the past," said GBT senior vice president of value development and Amex M&E general manager Gerardo Tejado in a statement. "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 strategies."
Amex M&E's 2022 Meetings and Events Forecast, released Tuesday, is based on a survey of 500 meeting and event professionals from 31 countries conducted in June and July 2021, interviews with industry experts, proprietary American Express Meetings & Events data sources, licensed third-party data and industry information.
Most respondents also noted that the most important factors to resume in-person events are confidence in duty-of-care components for attendee health and safety (58 percent of respondents) and supplier flexibility (55 percent).
Still, virtual meetings or components for hybrid events are not going away. Respondents expect nearly one in five meetings (19 percent) to be virtual-only for 2022, with another 39 percent planned as hybrid events. The remaining 42 percent are anticipated to be only in-person. Relatedly, 73 percent of respondents indicated they are very optimistic about their ability to use technology to enhance the meeting experience, compared with only 61 percent from last year's report.
Internal team or training meetings and simple meetings, whether in-person, virtual or hybrid, are expected to account for almost half (47 percent) of all meetings next year. The meeting types with the largest projected year-over-year growth in 2022 are internal team meetings or trainings, small and simple meetings and customer advisory board meetings.
Amex M&E expects attendance at in-person events to increase in 2022 for every meeting type by 3.5 percent to 4.3 percent from 2021 levels. And despite "Zoom fatigue," attendance for virtual and hybrid events is expected to increase by 2.8 percent to 3.4 percent. Average meeting length for in-person events is anticipated to be longer than this year, with the shortest of 1.7 days for small and simple meetings and the longest of 3.1 days for incentives and special events.
In addition, many respondents reported that meeting management policies are becoming more explicit, with 65 percent reporting specific language around safety and security, 47 percent for virtual and/or hybrid meetings and 44 percent for health and wellness. Further, many meeting policies now include sustainability requirements, and 83 percent of respondents said their organizations take sustainability into account when planning meetings and events. Diversity, equity and inclusion increasingly also is becoming more important, with more than 80 percent of respondents indicating their organizations work to incorporate it in the planning process.
Meeting Costs Seen Rising
Overall 2022 meeting spend is predicted to increase by 3.1 percent year over year on average, though 20 percent of North American respondents said they expect their budgets to increase by 11 percent or more. Amex M&E predicted the cost per attendee (excluding air) per day for all meeting types in all formats to increase by 2 percent globally. The projected 2022 cost per attendee per day for in-person meetings ranges from $484 for small and simple meetings to $851 for incentives and special events. For virtual and hybrid meetings, it ranges from $501 for small and simple meetings to $776 for incentives and special events.
Most respondents expect hotel group rates to increase in 2022, although amounts differ by region. Globally, respondents anticipate a 2.3 percent rate hike. In North America the expectation is for a 5.1 percent rate jump. Asia-Pacific reported the lowest anticipated increase at 1 percent.
Though both hotel room and meeting space availability are expected to increase, respondents noted that demand for appropriate space could make sourcing more difficult. The top factors influencing meeting location selection were "size of space to accommodate distancing" (35 percent of respondents) and "ability to host hybrid meetings" (25 percent).
Respondents expect air rates, too, to rise in 2022. Global air suppliers predict that rates will increase 5.3 percent. Survey responses varied by region. North American respondents expect a 5.1 percent increase in rates, followed by Central and South America at 3.3 percent, Europe at 2.4 percent and Asia-Pacific at 1.6 percent.