Mexico’s first ever economic impact study for the meetings industry has been completed using the MPI and United Nations World Tourism Organisation model already employed by the USA and Canada.

There was standing room only for the session on economic impact at this week's ICCA Congress in Germany, demonstrating the demand among delegates for information on this subject.

Eduardo Chaillo said he wanted to demonstrate the value of “an economic engine beyond tourism activity” and the result did this, revealing an $18bn market in terms of direct spend. The meetings ‘share of tourism’ was measured as being US$8.77bn of tourism total revenues of US$100bn plus US$9.4bn of revenues unrelated to tourism.

The results showed 830,000 foreign attendees took part in meetings and there was a US$12bn contribution to GDP with 784,000 people employed in the meetings industry. “These figures made me feel very comfortable,” said Chaillo.