27th September 2010: The Meeting Industry Association’s (MIA) latest survey on public sector spending in the meetings sector shows a further decline in the last quarter with 68.8% of venues surveyed reporting a reduction in public sector business, compared to 58.4% in the previous quarter.
The online survey also shows that just over 25% of venues are now ‘reliant’ on business from the public sector, with a further 48.4% of those surveyed reporting cancellations of events in excess of £50,000, highlighting the scale of the spending cut backs.
With more than 84% of the 423 venues surveyed regularly taking business from the public sector, the MIA believes businesses need to take action now, or risk further declines in revenues; “We have been working closely and proactively with our members in recent months to look at ways in which they can redress the balance and change their business mix” says MIA Chairman, Peter Darnell. “It is crucial that venues begin to look elsewhere now for business, as our forecast is for the decline in public sector meetings to continue and potentially accelerate as the coalition government spending cuts are fully implemented.”
