“Meetings Mean Business”

“Meetings Mean Business” is a campaign to protect the millions of American jobs that depend on business travel and events. It was originally launched by the U.S. Travel Association.

Here are some of the facts (as listed by the U.S. Travel Association) on the value of business travel and meetings:

--Business travel creates 2.4 million jobs nationally. Meetings and events are directly responsible for 1 million jobs.
--The U.S. Travel Association estimates that 200,000 travel jobs were lost in 2008 and expects another 247,000 to be lost in 2009
--Business travel accounts for $39 billion in tax revenue at the federal, state, and local levels.
--Meetings and events are responsible for 15% of all travel-related spending.
--Business travel supports more than 200 hotel and convention centers across the country.
--According to the results of a Meetings and Conventions magazine study, 52 percent of respondents claim that the backlash against meetings has been extremely or moderately influential on their company’s decisions to hold events
--In a recent survey, 87 percent of Americans say that encouraging people to travel recreationally within the U.S. could improve the country's economic landscape.
--Each meeting and event traveler spends an average of $1,000 per trip.
--According to a recent survey of Fortune 1,000 Chief Marketing Officers, meetings and events provide the highest return on investment of any marketing channel.

Learn more about the meetings market at our HSMAI South Florida Chapter's program on September 16th at the Broward County Convention Center. For more details/to register visit our website at www.hsmaisouthflorida.org Best, Julie Wernick, HSMAInsider and Managing Director.