UK meetings business in near future to be robust

The good first half year for UK meetings business is set to continue for the rest of 2019. This was revealed by the Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA) Meetings Barometer report.

“It’s been a good first half of the year for the UK meetings industry and bookings for the rest of the year indicate that this buoyancy will continue until at least the end of the year,” Angie Mason, chair of HBAA said. Mason sees plenty of good news for the industry in the figures reported in the HBAA Meetings Barometer for the first six months of 2019.

The report, developed in partnership with The Meetings Benchmark reveals that the average spend per meeting has risen by 8.8% to GBP 2,144 (USD 2601.21) from GBP 1,971 (USD 2391.32), the average spend throughout 2018. The average spend per delegate had also increased by 6.7%.

The average day delegate rate (DDR) had also risen slightly while the average number of delegates has remained the same at 54.

Increasing confidence among event planners is reflected by the reduction of lead and conversion times.  The average lead time for forward booking of events has gone down from 79.7 days to 78.3 while the average conversion time went down slightly from 18.5 days last year to 17.9 days so far in 2019.

Looking at forward bookings for July to December, currently the average spend per delegate is up substantially to GBP 116.54 (USD 141.39) and the average DDR up to GBP 33.90 (USD 41.13).