If the travel industry expects more meeting and convention bookings to offset sluggish business and leisure travel in 2003, it faces a big wakeup call, according to a just released meeting industry survey by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and American Express.

Meeting planners in the U.S., Canada and Europe project an overall average budget decrease of 1.1 percent in 2003 vs. 2002, even with a 1 percent average growth in how many meetings they will plan.

Conversely, business travel partners who supply hotels, air travel and other services to the industry project a 6 percent average increase in meeting revenue and the number of meetings they will host respectively.

The sizable gap is spelled out in FutureWatch 2003, a first-ever meeting industry report that side-by-side compares buyer and seller data.

Beyond differences in what planners say they will spend and what suppliers expect to make in meeting revenues, broader issues include conflicts about flexible cancellation and attrition clauses and increased use of technologies that could greatly impact an industry built on relationship-based buying and selling.

"The business of meetings is big business, and in economic times like this, it's good news that spending will remain relatively the same, and the number of meetings held will increase slightly.”

“Overall, the global $102.3 billion industry represents a significant portion of all business- related travel, including approximately 27 percent of all hotel bookings in the U.S. alone. But these trends signal a major shift in how the business of meetings is conducted and reveals a looming threat of commoditization," said Edwin L. Griffin, Jr., CAE, president and CEO of MPI.

"Face-to-face meetings are here to stay, but a soft economy combined with organizations demanding less financial risks when booking, plus new technologies all mean the industry must adapt to change. As the only association equally representing both sides, we hope this revealing data sparks deep dialogue," Griffin continued.

The survey's 1,300-plus planner respondents (15 percent of MPI's total planner base) have significant buying power with 2003 meeting budgets equaling $3.94 billion total.

More than 2,700 corporate, association, independent and consultant planners, plus suppliers from hotel chains, convention hotels and conference centers, resorts, airlines, convention and visitors bureaus and other related businesses responded to the survey.

MPI's new FutureWatch 2003 (Adobe .pdf format) is available for download on the MPI website http://www.mpiweb.org/ www.mpiweb.org