New CEIR Report Indicates Attendees Spend Nearly $45 Billion, Exhibitors Close to $25 Billion at Events

March 17, 2014

Attendees spend an estimated $44.8 billion and exhibitors spend an estimated $24.5 billion at events, according research compiled by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.



This research documents the substantial contribution business-to-business exhibitions make to the U.S. economy through attendee and exhibitor direct spending.

For the first time, CEIR commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to quantify attendee and exhibitor direct spend estimates based on data compiled as a part of an interim update of The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy Study. This data, along with other CEIR data, were used to compute the estimates published in these two documents.



The reports, Attendee Direct Spending Estimate and Exhibitor Direct Spending Estimate, analyzed the potential, direct spend of attendees and exhibitors at exhibitions, as well as revealed direct spending at exhibitions of any size positively impacts the economy.

The findings are based on the more than 11,000 exhibitions that CEIR tracks from 3,000 net square feet and have at least 10 exhibiting companies to the largest exhibitions in the U.S.



“These direct spend estimates clearly communicate the power of business-to-business exhibition industry in making a substantial contribution to the U.S. economy,” said CEIR CEO Brian Casey.

He added, “Direct spending fuels business for exhibition organizers and suppliers as well as the travel and tourism industries. All this commerce helps local, regional and U.S. economies, which translates into job retention and job creation.”



Click on the following links to access each corresponding report: SM40.14 Attendee Direct Spending Estimate and SM41.14 Exhibitor Direct Spending Estimate. IAEE members can access the CEIR library and reports at no cost.

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