Meetings & events volume for April saw a significant increase of 323% year-over-year (YOY), according to Knowland. Despite the normal cooling factor of the Easter holiday, there was still a 3.7% recovery of events from March to April.
“The Easter holiday always takes a toll on meetings and events,” said Kristi White, chief product officer, Knowland. “This month was no exception but even with the holiday, there was moderate growth month over month. Additionally, for April, the market was 66% recovered compared to April of 2019. This is stronger than March recovery at 64.7%. So, while the month-over-month growth is not as high as prior months, the level of recovery to 2019 is growing.”
- Attendees were ahead of 2019 levels for April with the average number of attendees per event at 118, compared to 63 in April 2021 and 74 in April 2019.
- The average space used in April 2022 was 3,185 sq. ft. Meetings in April 2021 averaged 2,640 sq. ft. and 2,322 sq. ft. in April 2019. Proportionally from a per person (p/p) perspective, 2022 meeting space used averaged 27 sq. ft. p/p as opposed to 42 sq. ft. p/p in 2021 and 31 sq. ft. p/p in 2019. The lower square footage per person is a sign people are growing even more comfortable meeting in smaller spaces.
- The top five growth markets in April compared to March were, in order, Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, Colorado Springs and Kansas City.
- The corporate segment represents 63% of meeting and event business with technology, healthcare and training/education taking the lead as the largest industry groups. From a recovery standpoint compared to April 2019 levels, online retailer, tobacco, charity org/social services and biotechnology are the segments at the highest level of recovery capture in April.
