The International association meetings market remains resilient and positive despite tougher financial pressures, according to a new ICCA and IMEX Group survey.
The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) spoke to 84 international association hosted buyers at the 10th IMEX in Frankfurt for the survey. Seventy five per cent of those buyers organise meetings for more than 500 delegates, 15 per cent organise events for over 5,000 delegates.
Even though the actual and anticipated attendance at association meetings in 2012 is suffering more compared to last year, it continues to be relatively strong. Over 28 per cent of respondents reported higher attendance for their 2012 events than in previous years; 38 per cent indicated no change (53% indicated no change on 2011) and 31 per cent reported slight reductions (compared to 15% who reported slight reductions in 2011) and less than three per cent reported a”significant” fall in numbers (which is one percentage point lower than 2011).
Only 14 per cent reported higher income from sponsors and exhibitions in 2012, 34 per cent showed no change, but the remaining 49 per cent suffered falls in financial support from this side of their budgets.
When asked if the continued global economic turbulence had any negative impact on their association and/or events in 2012, almost 60 per cent answered “yes”. When this question was asked in 2011 this percentage was almost 43 per cent, which means the international association meeting sector has definitely been impacted more since last year.
However, when asked about their projections for 2013, these executives still painted a positive picture: almost 22 per cent of associations will be running more meetings in 2013 than in 2012, while only 11 per cent plan to organise fewer meetings. Over 40 per cent are still projecting higher attendances than in 2012, compared to almost 10 per cent who expect their delegate numbers to fall. These numbers are only slightly lower than last year, which means this regular survey still paints a very positive forward forecast, despite challenging economic conditions.
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