In late January in eastern Connecticut, MGM Grand began staffing up for the May opening of its new hotel at Foxwoods Resort & Casino.
Simultaneously in Hartford, boat sellers crammed vessels into the cavernous Connecticut Convention Center for the Hartford Boat and Fishing Show. In Bridgeport, the Arena at Harbor Yard was preparing for its annual home show, and in Stamford, the owners of the city”™s Sheraton converted the hotel to the Hilton brand, while sprucing up its 45,000 square feet of meeting space.
Corporations have plenty of elbow room in Connecticut these days for meetings and conventions ”“ and now it is up to corporations on whether to run the expense checks that enable businesspeople to rub elbows with their industry peers.
That is not a lock, if the recession of 2001 is any indicator. Following the pop of the Internet bubble and the terrorist attacks that rendered long delays at airports, companies pared back their travel budgets, causing some high-tech conventions simply to disappear.
Despite disruptions to the U.S. economy this year, a 2001 effect on travel and convention business is unlikely to recur, two leading business-travel groups maintain.
In an October survey, three in four corporate travel managers told the National Business Travelers Association (NBTA) that they expected to increase their “spend” this year 5 percent to 10 percent.
Spokesman Caleb Tiller said preliminary results from an online poll NBTA ran on its Web site indicated 40 percent of travel managers are reassessing their 2008 travel budgets.
“Historically, if there is a big downturn in the economy, companies take a look at their (travel budgets) in midstream,” Tiller said.
Companies have not been helped by sharply escalating travel costs, which respondents indicated may increase between 6 percent and 8 percent this year, including airfare, hotels and rental vehicles.
“Every time we have asked that the past four years up through the 2008 forecast, our members have indicated an increase both in the numbers of trips they expect and in their corporate (travel) budgets,” Tiller said.
NBTA plans to provide an update in March for travel managers attending its business-travel financial forum in New York City.
In 2007, travel budgets were up 8 percent according to a survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. With costs escalating, ACTE has noticed a shift transferring travel expense authority to corporate procurement departments, according to Susan Gurley, ACTE executive director. Those departments increasingly are interested in offloading tasks to third-party vendors.
Still, one can only game the system so far ”“ in the endgame, the only way to truly reap savings may be to cut travel budgets for employees attending meetings and conventions; whether obtaining a booth at a major event like the Hartford Boat and Fishing Show, or sponsoring a table at a group meeting in Stamford.
If there is a silver lining, it could be that hotels and meeting halls will have to compete more strenuously for business; possibly leading to lower rates and, just as importantly, to more responsive service.
The Connecticut Business and Industry Association, which hosts events around the state including in Fairfield County, recently searched for a new venue for one of its larger events, according to Peter Gioia, CBIA vice president.
The reason? CBIA meeting participants often register at the last moment, and the venue manager was reluctant to reconfigure breakout rooms to accommodate the additional headcount.
