EXOTIC VENUES ARE exciting, but for a dependable venue offering every event amenity, it's hard to beat a hotel. Yet there is little hard data on the significance of special events to the hotel industry.

To fill this need, Special Events Magazine is proud to present the first study examining the special event business at hotels and resorts.

HOW WE DID IT

The Primedia Business Marketing Research Department collected data in August 2002. A total of 3,006 Special Events Magazine subscribers categorized as “hotels/resorts” were selected on an nth name basis to receive an e-mail invitation directing them to a department Web site where the survey was located. The effective response rate was 12.4 percent (total usable respondents numbered 226). Research methods conform to accepted marketing industry standards.

The results: Despite a brutal period for the hotel business in general (according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, pretax profits dropped 33 percent in 2001 from 2000), the special event business appears to have a solid base. AH&LA does not predict a recovery until 2003, yet the Special Events Magazine study shows 70 percent of respondents expect the event business at their properties in 2002 to be the same as or better than a “typical” year, and more than half expect a boost in event business in 2003. Check out the full story below.

Note: Totals may not equal 100% because some percentages have been rounded off.

FORECASTING THE FUTURE

What change in revenue do you expect over the next 12 months in each category?

Note: Statistics represent an overall change in revenue; increasing and decreasing percentages have been averaged.