AIPC
Making sense of the convention kaleidoscope with new AIPC survey results
EVERY YEAR , THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONVENTION CENTRES ( AIPC ) – IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ACCESS INTELLIGENCE – PERFORMS A MEMBER SURVEY FOCUSING ON SIX KEY AREAS : REVENUES , BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT , BEHAVIOUR , INFRASTRUCTURE & INVESTMENTS , RESOURCES AND OUTLOOK . HERE ARE SOME OF THE 2024 RESULTS AND KEY INSIGHTS .
T his summary of the 2024 AIPC Membership Survey findings focuses on five areas : industry performance and outlook , new strategies , client trends , infrastructure and staff . bookings , only 58 % of the AIPC community has reached the 2019 levels .
Looking forward , a significant 83 % of members say their overall events and meetings industry outlook is either ‘ confident ’ or ‘ very confident ’ in terms of expected growth over the next few years . North American members are the most confident compared to other major regions .
AIPC also asked which risks to growth the members see . Overall operational service and commodities inflation is by far the top risk , followed by competition from other centres and destinations and increasing costs of technology-related investments . In short , growth is driving scarcity throughout the world and is fuelling pricing increases .
New strategies In terms of important strategic changes made over the past year , members have primarily changed or enhanced their corporate social responsibility ( CSR )
“ When business is ‘ good ’ and the meetings industry is expanding , centres tend to not need to focus on adding new revenue streams quite as much as they do in weaker market environments ” initiatives , increased venue services pricing , and changed their client bookings and marketing focus to certain types of clients or events .
It should be noted that when business is ‘ good ’ and the event and meetings industry is expanding , centres tend to not need to focus on adding new revenue streams quite as much as they do in weaker market environments . In 2021 , 60 % of the members added new revenue streams , compared to 32 % in 2024 . The same goes for innovations : in 2022 , 70 % of the members adopted innovations – which were mainly technology driven . Over the last two years , the focus has been on fine-tuning these changes .
Client trends Looking at the data of the last five years suggests that , similar to 2019 , the industry today is in an expansionary phase driven by strong economic growth ( with variations around the world ).
In strong economic periods major corporate events tend to expand . The five-year comparison shows that both governmental events and local corporate meetings have not rebounded back to 2019 levels .
In terms of client behaviour , the AIPC members continue to see requests
Industry performance and outlook On average , the gross total revenues have surpassed the level last experienced in 2019 . Collectively members say total revenues reached 103 % compared to the level in 2019 . However , there are big regional differences : Europe , Africa , Oceania and North America are all above 2019 levels , whereas Latin America and Asia are still below .
Attendance levels and the number of bookings are both below 2019 levels . On average , attendance levels are at 91 % compared to 2019 . Similar to gross revenues , there are regional differences , with Europe and Africa having a lower average attendance . In terms of
Primary Risks to Centre Business Growth – Top Five
10 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / ISSUE 132