The average corporate travel budget will rise 4.5 percent in 2011, according to a survey of travel managers published last month by the National Business Travel Association.
That would follow a 5.5 percent upward bump in travel budgets this year, according to NBTA, an Alexandria, Va.-based professional society with a chapter covering Fairfield and Westchester counties.
It is not just road warriors set free once more that is contributing to the increase ”“ about two-thirds of those polled also cited higher hotel rates and airfares.
“Business travel is coming back ”“ there is no doubt about it,” Craig Banikowski, CEO of NBTA, said in a statement. “Given the difficulties the industry faced during this last recession, corporate travel buyers welcome the improved conditions, and companies are already getting their teams back on the road to help build business.”
Business travelers can also expect fewer recession-era discounts as business returns to normal for hotels, airlines and other travel vendors.
“The ”˜buyers market”™ we”™ve been able to take advantage of over the past few years may slowly be turning around,” Banikowski said.
Hosts of meetings and conventions will take it ”“ the industry suffered a 13 percent drop in 2009, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, quadruple the next worst year-over-year decline ”“ which happened to be 2008. Dallas-based CEIR tracked declines over nine consecutive quarters, also a first, including in some industry sectors such as life sciences which had proven resistant to past downturns.
In addition to the economy, meeting planners had to deal with the swine flu pandemic last fall that had public and private organizations scaling back gatherings.
The fledgling Connecticut Convention Center was not immune to the industry contagion, as attendance fell 9 percent to under 229,000 people.
In the second quarter, however, CEIR tracked a 4.5 percent increase in attendance nationwide, and a separate survey by the International Congress and Convention Association provided additional evidence of a rebound.
In New York City, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center had $33.5 million in gross revenue through May, about 1 percent ahead of plan.
In the ICCA survey, less than a quarter of conference organizers indicated attendance at their events dropped in 2010, though some 40 percent of ICCA members said that revenue fell due to various financial pressures.
Still, more than half of those surveyed project increased convention attendance next year, with just 6 percent anticipating a drop.
CEIR says the exhibitions and events industry for the most part is a “trailing indicator” that does not regain steam until well after an economic recovery is under way. If the industry follows past patterns, however the recovery will be swift, CEIR adds ”“ notably, the industry”™s previous decline ended with the second quarter of 2003. By the end of 2004, the exhibitions and events industry performance had returned to pre-2000 levels.
If the rooms are filling back up, the kitchen has yet to return to its former culinary heights, according to Ed Walter, CEO of Host Hotels & Resorts L.P., which owns and operates Marriott hotels in New York City and Rocky Hill, Conn.
In place of elaborate fare, coffee, soda and water still dominate breaks between meeting sessions.
“The good news (is) that the customers are meeting again ”“ groups are coming back to (hotels) and the events are happening,” Walter said, in a conference call this month with investment analysts. “The group”™s spending is per customer is down just a little bit ”¦Â We were expecting a little bit more in the third quarter and as we look out to the fourth quarter we realized that we should probably moderate our expectations there.”
