M&E spend set to rise in 2025, says Amex GBT

Budgets for meetings and events are set to increase in 2025, with a particular focus on in-person events, according to a new report from American Express Global Business Travel.

The TMC’s annual Global Meetings and Events Forecast, which surveyed more than 500 people working in the M&E sector across the world, found that budgets are on the rise for two-third of respondents.

There’s also a high level of optimism about the health of the industry in 2025, with 74 per cent of planners feeling positive about prospects. However, this marks a tempering of the high expectations seen in 2024 and, according to the forecast, signals a return to more balanced outlooks amid rising travel costs.  

Meeting professionals continue to anticipate that internal meetings will be the most frequent meeting type in 2025 – like they had predicted for 2024.

Nearly half of all internal meetings are expected to be held at a hotel, while 34 per cent will be in a different city, and 35 per cent will include social activities for networking, according to the forecast.

In-person events are also the preferred choice, with 59 per cent of respondents planning in-person only events, while only 21 per cent are planning virtual events and 20 per cent are working on hybrid (in-person and virtual) event formats.

Location availability, cost and budget pressure are the top three challenges meeting professionals expect to face over the next 12 months, with 40 per cent willing to change destination or accommodation in order to manage rising costs. An additional 40 per cent said they would shift to more virtual meetings to reduce costs.

In Europe, 82 per cent of meetings professionals will host meetings with an in-person component in 2025, with 65 per cent expecting their M&E spend to increase in the next year. This compares to 70 per cent of planners in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region who expect to increase meetings spend in 2025.

The list of the top five destinations in Europe for meetings and events next year is expected to be led by London, followed by Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Berlin.

Sustainability also remains firmly on the agenda, with 54 per cent of meeting professionals globally stating it is “extremely or very important”, while 48 per cent have already implemented a sustainable meetings and events policy.

Most planners (86 per cent) have implemented DE&I best practices or plan to do so. These include offering varieties of food and beverage, such as non-alcoholic drinks (34 per cent), focusing on accessibility (31 per cent) and using diverse or minority-owned suppliers (30 per cent).

Gerardo Tejado, SVP, professional services at Amex GBT, said: “Our forecast highlights a strong and optimistic outlook for the meetings and events industry. In-person meetings continue to dominate with prioritisation of attendee engagement, sustainability, and cutting-edge technology like AI to enhance the experience.”

The report highlights how technology is changing the events industry, with AI increasingly being used for tasks like attendee matchmaking (42 per cent), content creation (41 per cent), theme development (40 per cent) and tracking attendee engagement (39 per cent).

The use of mobile apps (41 per cent), QR codes (38 per cent), live polling and feedback tools (33 per cent) and virtual reality (31 per cent) is also expected to continue in 2025, albeit with seemingly less vigour than in 2024.

Source: Businesstravelnewseurope.com