The Events Industry Council (EIC) recently launched the survey for its latest Global Economic Significance Study, which will look at the economic impact of the business events sector on the global economy. As part of this launch, it has also released its Global Business Events Barometer for the fourth quarter of 2021, which echoes other recent industry reports and indicates that post-pandemic growth in the business events sector is continuing around the world.
As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the level of business events taking place around the world was up 15 percent from the previous quarter but is still lower than pre-pandemic levels. Hotel group room nights were 61 percent of their Q4 2019 levels, while RFP activity was up to 57 percent of Q4 2019 levels, and up 14 percent from the previous quarter.
RFP activity was highest in North America, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe — specifically in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and the US — while the regions with the strongest recovery in terms of hotel group demand were the Middle East and Africa.
In addition, events being booked within 12 months increased by 25 percent from Q3 to Q4 of 2021, meaning that more organizers aren’t putting off in-person events as much and are more confident in their ability to host an event in-person within the next year.
The overall outlook for the industry’s recovery remains positive, but the report also notes that there remain challenges and uncertainties facing the industry going into the rest of 2022, including the war in Ukraine and the future of the pandemic. If the war is relatively short-lived, according to the report, “global recovery is expected to remain robust by post-global financial crisis standards and support longer term recovery in global business events,” but a drawn-out war is unfortunately looking more and more likely.
“We also still face the uncertainty caused by the as yet unknown future impact of emerging variants and increasing COVID-19 rates as the world continues to open up,” the report reads. “Therefore, it is vital that we continue to monitor progress and that we use data and intelligence to support our industry to continue its process of recovery.”