Strong US economy to provide labour challenges for venues, says IACC/SHFM research

Americas News
Strong US economy to provide labour challenges for venues, says IACC/SHFM research

The International Association of Conference Centres (IACC) has released the results of its new joint research project with the Society for Hospitality and Foodservice Management (SHFM), results that point to a strong US economy, but one that brings with it a strengthening labour market and potential challenges for venue operators.

The Trends in the Meeting Venue Industry report delivers a range of insights and predictions in the US conference venues market and is available in two versions – one which focuses on residential conference venues and the other on non-residential. Both reports utilise full year 2018 operating data collected from 69 IACC and SHFM member venues in the US.

Average rates, occupancies, package allocations, salary benchmarking, source of business, utilisation, technology procurement and running costs are all covered in the report.

Mark Cooper, CEO, IACC said: “The outlook for the US economy is strong, with predictions that meetings business will continue to grow, including 50% of those surveyed feeling conference and meeting duration will increase in the next 12 months.”

Cooper continued: “A strengthening US labour market, coupled with peak occupancy levels, brings challenges for venue operators looking to hire the talent needed to grow their businesses. Having access to salary data for evaluation and benchmarking was fundamental to this research and occupies a dedicated section in the reports.”

The full reports can be purchased from IACC’s website here.

Managing Editor, Conference News & Conference & Meetings World. Write Paul an E-mail

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