Meeting their needs
Consumers, businesses may tighten travel belts
Expect no drop off in attendance this week for the annual DB Investment Conference at Doral Arrowwood in Rye Brook, where organizers have cobbled together a program to help benefit-plan managers meet ongoing obligations for plans that have been frozen, and how to invest in perilous times.
For many other meetings facilities, however, it appears the perilous times could well freeze up RSVP flow as consumers and businesses strip spending to all but the bare essentials.
In a survey last week, the National Business Travelers Association (NBTA) indicated its members are responding to the economic crisis by sending fewer people to conventions, particularly when air travel is involved. In all, 40 percent of those surveyed said they have cut meetings they plan to either host or attend, while more than half said they have recommended employees where possible to schedule online meetings rather than face-to-face.
Globally, hotel occupancy rates in September were down between 5 percent and 7 percent compared with a year earlier, according to preliminary estimates by Smiths Travel Research.
Things are bad enough that even the trade group Meetings Professional International canceled its annual meeting scheduled for Singapore this past weekend, indicating it would reschedule the event next year on a yet-to-be determined date.
In response, hotels and convention centers are expected to step up discounting in a bid to hang on to events that are already scheduled for their halls. There is already anecdotal evidence locally of a potential silver lining for mid-range hotels, which stand to gain by capturing business from pricier alternatives in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
In planning a Northeast regional meeting this month of the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), Ward Thrasher elected not to go ahead with his original plans to hold the event at the eastern Connecticut casinos, instead choosing the comparatively modest Hilton Garden Inn in Shelton, Conn.
ACBSP members include the College of Westchester, Nyack College, Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, and SUNY Orange County Community College.
Thrasher, an assistant dean at the University of Bridgeport, anticipated that schools would curtail their travel budgets. Even after opting for the lower-cost venue, half the 50-plus people who originally planned to attend will show up in Shelton meeting, Thrasher estimated.
NBTA’s survey demonstrated that many meeting planners are following suit in moving events to lower-priced hotels, with two thirds of them either suggesting or mandating so. And 7 percent of corporate travel overseers are even eliminating where possible the option of an overnight stay, forcing employees to return home the same day.
“Too many of our travelers don’t treat the company’s money as if it was their own,” carped one unidentified respondent.
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