As we continue to track the recovery of the meetings and events industry, IACC’s Meeting Room of the Future Barometer for November 2022 provides further insight into trends that have been taking shape throughout the year and will likely continue into 2023.
“Indicators tracking the recovery of the meetings industry continue to show a positive trajectory. With most countries having now lifted travel restrictions and pent-up demand for business events from the pandemic, there is much reason for optimism for business event hotels and venue operators,” reads the report.
The research — which consisted of a survey of 98 global venue operators from the Americas (US and Canada), Europe (Sweden, the UK, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands), and Australia — found that recovery levels continue to increase, with approximately half of respondents indicating that they expect to recover to at least 70 percent of their pre-pandemic meetings volume levels in 2022.
When broken down further, these numbers vary by the operating model of the venue as well as geography, with marketed venues in Europe showing the strongest recovery, in terms of both revenue and event volume — 40 percent of marketed European venues anticipate surpassing pre-pandemic revenue this year, while almost 25 percent have surpassed pre-pandemic volume levels, compared to 19 percent and 8 percent in the Americas, respectively.
Notably, according to the most recent barometer, the balance between virtual, hybrid, and in-person events is continuing to skew more heavily towards in-person after months of fully virtual events. In IACC’s spring survey, 30 percent of venue operators reported that 90 percent or more of their in-person events offered a virtual option in 2021, but only 19 percent expected to offer access in 2022.
At the end of 2022, only 9 percent of respondents indicated that they offer virtual access to 90 percent or more of their events. The percentage of respondents offering virtual access for zero to 10 percent of their events has also increased from 15 percent in the spring to 28 percent in the fall.
This trend also has a geographic component, with venues in the Americas reporting higher levels of hybrid events than those in Europe. Technology investments are in line with this trend, with a higher percentage of American venues than European venues reporting major investments in technology for clients requiring virtual participation over the past nine months.
As long as current economic conditions and labor issues continue, we can expect fewer events to choose synchronous hybrid formats. However, virtual hasn’t completely fallen by the wayside as many organizations are choosing to hold virtual events at different times during the year in between physical meetings.