European companies spend more in meetings

The meetings and events held in Europe seems to last for four days, compared to almost one week in the past, according to the travel company Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), who has compared the activities of their clients in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom during this year with those of three years ago.

The increase of the time pressure on executives and staff is one of the reasons that the duration is shorter. Though there are no signs of expense reduction in meetings and events, it is in fact, increasing: “We think that the global meeting and event market is approximately USD300 billion and Europe is about a third of that. The proportion of buyers directly implicated in meetings and events is increasing in Europe, and it has reached 50% in the United States”, according with Todd Kramer, Vice-President of Meetings and Events in CWT.

The trend towards shorter meetings and events affects the choice in the venues, with organisers preferring closer destinations: “Though in Europe, destinations such as Barcelona, Dublin, Lisbon, Istanbul and Dubai are preferential destinations for meetings and events within five hours travel for the majority of the European cities, for Spain, destinations such as Budapest or Marrakech are also popular,â