Per-Attendee Costs to Rise 4.5% in 2025

November 5, 2024

Per-attendee costs are anticipated to rise next year, even as air and hotel increases begin to stabilize, according to a new GBTA report.

The per-attendee cost of hosting a meeting or event, which actually dropped last year by 3%, is forecast to have increased by 4.3% this year — and is expected to go up another 4.5% in 2025. According to the recently published 2025 Global Business Travel Forecast, by business travel and meetings company CWT and the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the average daily per-attendee cost will grow from $162 this year to $169 in 2025.

Despite rising food and beverage and hotel guest room costs, the per-attendee cost had dropped year-over-year from 2022 to 2023 as meeting and event organizers shifted to smaller, more business-focused meetings held at more affordable venues and destinations. In 2024 and looking forward to 2025, these costs are anticipated to rise as this sector of the business travel industry continues to recover and the appetite for larger and more complex in-person events grows and incentive activities pick up in both number and scope. The report advises host organizations to plan with a 12-month horizon and consolidate travel and meetings spend to enhance negotiating leverage.

The good news is that, although costs for meeting- and event-related expenses — from air and hotel to ground transportation, AV and food and beverage — are not expected to decrease any time soon, at least the pace of increases will slow noticeably through the remainder of 2024 and into 2025.

“While the past few years have seen significant volatility in travel costs, our latest data suggests a period of relative stability is on the horizon,” said Patrick Andersen, CWT’s President & Chief Executive Officer. “Businesses can expect to navigate a more predictable pricing environment through 2024 and 2025, allowing for better budget planning and cost management. However, price regularity is fragile. The focus on geopolitical factors, inflationary pressures and ESG concerns remains critical.”

Here’s a snapshot of the report’s forecast for some key meeting elements:

Airfare: For domestic flights, costs are expected to rise just 0.5% from an average of $810 in 2024 to $814 in 2025. This relative stability is at least in part thanks to a continued softening in the leisure travel market that has resulted in excess capacity.

Hotel: Average daily rates for business-focused properties, which rose 3.4% to $184 in 2024, are anticipated to flatten somewhat next year with an expected increase of just 1.6%, or $187 on average. This also is at least in part due to the continued softening of the leisure travel segment which, as the report notes, “means there is a greater focus on transient business travelers and groups” as demand for group travel remains steady.

The report also had several suggestions on how meeting and event organizers can help defray the anticipated increases in per-attendee costs, including:

Consider smaller cities that are in less demand.
Make site selections and bookings as early as possible.
Consolidate spend across meetings, events and other business travel to gain leverage based on the organization-wide volume of travel spend categories.

The report also recommends shifting the perspective of meetings from being an expense to being an investment in employee engagement and retention, especially of Gen Z attendees.

Download the full report on the CWT website.