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Factoid

The United States meetings industry employs nearly 1.7 million Americans, spends $263 billion, and pays more than $25 billion in federal, state and local taxes annually, according to a highly anticipated study released today.

The study, The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy, was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for a consortium of 14 industry organization members of the Convention Industry Council.

In fact, the study found, the meetings industry’s $106 billion direct contribution to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is more than that of motor vehicle manufacturing, information and data processing, or air and rail transportation—and it employs more Americans than all of those industries combined.

The top 10 ways that money was spent:  -

1. Meeting Planning and Production: $109 billion
2. Accommodations: $34.9 billion
3. Food and beverage: $26.4 billion
4. Air transportation: $17.8 billion
5. Venue rental: $10.6 billion
6. Retail: $7.2 billion
7. Gasoline: $6.6 billion
8. Recreation and entertainment: $6.2 billion
9. Car rental: $5.5 billion
10. Travel services/other tourism commodities: $3.4 billion