Meetings Mean Business Coalition to Fully Integrate With U.S. Travel

In mid-November, the Meetings Mean Business Coalition (MMBC) and the U.S. Travel Association announced the full integration of the coalition under the U.S. Travel umbrella, strengthening MMBC’s critical mission of uniting the meetings industry with one strong and powerful voice.

Global Meetings Industry Day, a signature program of the MMBC that celebrates the value of professional meetings and events, will take place April 7, 2022.

By integrating with U.S. Travel, MMBC will benefit more directly from the association’s robust 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.

The return of professional meetings and events is crucial to the recovery of the travel economy and is a top priority of the association, along with rebuilding international inbound travel and the growth of domestic leisure travel.

In 2019, nearly 500 million business trips were taken in the U.S, with $306 billion spent on travel-related goods that supported 2.5 million American jobs. Despite making up just 20% of total trip volume pre-pandemic, business travelers accounted for a disproportionate 40-60% 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% 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% 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 U.S. Travel Association President & CEO Roger Dow. “The overall recovery of the industry relies, in part, on the swift return of professional meetings and events.”

For more information, visit meetingsmeanbusiness.com.