The Meetings Mean Business Coalition and the U.S. Travel Association have integrated the coalition under the U.S. Travel umbrella. By integrating with U.S. Travel, MMBC aims to benefit more directly from the association’s public affairs resources and advocacy network while providing greater value to coalition members as business travel and professional meetings and events rebuilds from steep pandemic-related losses.
“Since its founding, the Meetings Mean Business Coalition and the U.S. Travel Association have been close partners in producing meaningful programs that highlight the value of meetings and business travel events,” said Michael Massari, chief sales officer, Caesars Entertainment and co-chair, Meetings Mean Business Coalition. “Taking this next step to integrate resources will further elevate our collective work as we emerge stronger than ever from the pandemic.”
“Fully integrating Meetings Mean Business and its scope of work under the U.S. Travel Association umbrella makes great strategic sense, given the level of need and advocacy for the recovery of the meetings and business events travel segment,” said Fred Dixon, president and CEO, NYC & Company and co-chair, Meetings Mean Business Coalition. “We are excited to closely align the coalition’s work further within U.S. Travel and its public affairs program.”
Meetings & Business Travel
According to U.S. Travel, nearly 500 million business trips were taken in the U.S. in 2019, with $306 billion spent on travel-related goods that supported 2.5 million American jobs. Despite making up just 20 percent of total trip volume pre-pandemic, business travelers accounted for a disproportionate 40–60 percent of lodging and air revenue.
Pandemic-related losses in business travel spending in 2020 and 2021 is estimated at $315 billion.
U.S. Travel’s latest forecast projects that domestic business travel spending will reach 76 percent of 2019 levels in 2022 while the segment is not expected to fully recover until 2024. International business travel spending is projected to reach 65 percent of 2019 levels in 2022 and fully recover around 2025. The association is advocating for a set of policies to accelerate the travel industry’s recovery.
“Meeting and business events—in conjunction with international inbound and domestic leisure travel—is one of the three critical segments of the U.S. travel economy,” said Roger Dow, U.S. Travel Association president and CEO. “The overall recovery of the industry relies, in part, on the swift return of professional meetings and events.”