“In some of our hotels we see a slight drop of US customers due to the economical situation, however it is minimal and we are confident that this will be increased again,” says Gitta Brueckmann, Regional Vice-President Sales & Marketing (Continental Europe) at Marriott International. But, according to the Hilton Hotels, the number of American meetings in Europe has dropped significantly in the last 12 months. It used to be that US customers were N°1 in terms of turnover, followed by the UK, and local companies came third. Nowadays, European (non-UK) customers are N°2 on the list, and are not far from taking the lead. This, of course, is due to a firm decline in US companies’ meeting budgets. “There are less events in Europe, less time spent, but also less people for each event”. An average event at a Hilton hotel now uses around 65 rooms, down from 95 rooms two years ago. This figure shows just how much meeting budgets have been tightened up. For François Tixier, Senior Area Director of Sales for the Hilton Hotels (France, Benelux, Spain and Italy), this is mainly due to the US dollar’s exchange rate, which has kept falling since 2006.The bottom-line of today’s market is that it’s on the buyer’s side. This means there is less demand, less often, and for less people. It also means it will generally be more difficult than before to please a customer. So anything that gives meeting planners the impression that they are saving money or getting more for their money is a good option. Of course, as we said previously, customers still want creativity and imagination, as before. In fact, in this market, “before” is a very important word. Because customers’ needs and expectations are always changing, yet providing them with something better or...