Event RFPs surge to 113% of 2019 as group rooms and event jobs lag
Planners are asking for more future events than before the pandemic, but booked room nights have not moved in a year. That 21-point gap is a staffing pipeline, landing on a sector that still has fewer direct event jobs than in 2019.
Planners are asking venues and hotels to bid on more future business events than they did before the pandemic. Requests for proposals (RFPs) reached 113% of 2019 levels in the Events Industry Council's Q2 2026 Global Business Events Barometer, prepared with Oxford Economics and published October 21, 2026. Global hotel group room demand, the measure closer to confirmed events, sits at 92%, unchanged from a year earlier.
That 21-point gap is the main trend in the 2026 data, and it lands on hirers. Events in the RFP stage today will need registration, catering, security and floor staff once they are contracted, yet EIC's economic study shows direct event jobs still below 2019 even as direct spending runs 12.2% above it.
For hirers, the gap reads as a pipeline: the staffing work arrives when those requests become contracts, not when the RFP goes out.
Five event industry trends in the 2026 data
Five trends in the event industry stand out this year. Each rests on a dated figure from EIC's research with Oxford Economics.
RFPs for future events run 13% above 2019
- 113%RFPs vs 2019
The RFP figure is the forward-looking number. An RFP is a planner asking venues and hotels to bid on an event that has not happened yet, so RFP volume shows what is being planned, not what is taking place now.
The jump is recent. In EIC's Q1 2026 Barometer, released in June, overall RFP activity stood at 101% of 2019, with RFPs for events more than 12 months out at 122%. Group room nights were at 92% then too, so RFPs rose 12 points in one quarter while rooms held still.
Adam Sacks, President of Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, explained the split in EIC's Barometer release:
While current group room demand remains below pre-pandemic levels, the strength of RFP activity points to a sustained pipeline of future events.
Group room demand is stuck at 92% of 2019
- 92%Group room demand vs 2019
Group room demand is the backward-looking check. It measures rooms booked by groups, which sits closer to events that are confirmed. At 92% of 2019, it has not moved in a year.
More requests and flat room demand can both be true. Planners may be sending more RFPs per event, shopping more venues, or holding events that need fewer hotel rooms. The release does not say which.
EIC President and CEO Amy Calvert framed the split this way: "We cannot ignore the economic and geopolitical realities shaping our world. Yet even in this environment, organisations are choosing to invest in bringing people together."
Direct spending has passed 2019 by 12.2%
- US$1.3TDirect spending, 2025
- 1.65BParticipants
- +12.2%Direct spending vs 2019
The 2026 Global Economic Significance of Business Events Study, prepared by Oxford Economics with 2025 data, counts 1.65 billion participants and US$1.3 trillion in direct spending, or US$785 per participant. The 12.2% rise over 2019 comes from the study's May 2026 executive summary.
Direct and total figures are easy to mix up. Direct spending is what participants and organizers spent. Total impact adds the supply chain and the wider spending those jobs create: each US$1.00 of direct spending generated another US$1.37 in indirect and induced spending, according to the full study released in July 2026.
| Measure | Direct | Total incl. indirect and induced |
|---|---|---|
| Spending / business sales | US$1.3 trillion (spending) | US$3.1 trillion (business sales) |
| GDP | US$759 billion | US$1.8 trillion |
| Jobs | 9.7 million | 24.2 million |
For US hirers, the closest the data gets is a regional split reported by PCMA Convene. North America accounted for US$487.7 billion in direct spending in 2025, about 37.5% of the global total by our calculation. That figure covers the whole region, not the US alone.
The latest regional Barometer figures come from the Q1 2026 edition: North America's RFP activity was at 124% of 2019 and its hotel group room nights at 96%, level with Latin America for the strongest room-night recovery. US hotel data points the same way. US hotel group demand grew 2.4% year over year through June 2026, to 129 million room nights, according to CoStar figures reported by Hotel Online.
- North America487.7
- Asia352.8
- Western Europe328
- Latin America and the Caribbean42.6
- Central and Eastern Europe34.1
- Africa25.8
- Middle East21.1
Source: New EIC Study Measures the Global Economic Significance of Business Events · As of Aug 2026
Direct event jobs are still below 2019
- 9.7MDirect jobs, 2025
- 10.4MDirect jobs forecast, 2028
Oxford Economics forecasts direct spending of US$1.6 trillion by 2028, 6.7% average annual growth from 2025, and about 10.4 million direct jobs. Even that 2028 job figure is only within 4.1% of 2019 employment.
Spending has passed 2019. Direct employment has not, and on this forecast it will not fully catch up by 2028.
Corporate events lead direct spending at 43.8%
- US$566BCorporate events
- US$178.5BTrade shows
For anyone tracking corporate event trends, the headline is scale. Corporate events took US$566 billion in direct spending in 2025, 43.8% of the global total, according to PCMA Convene's report on the study.
Conferences and congresses followed at US$383.2 billion (29.7%), trade shows at US$178.5 billion (13.8%) and incentive events at US$86.6 billion (6.7%). These are global totals; Convene gives no breakdown by event type for North America.
Plan staffing around the pipeline, not the room count
This section is our analysis, not an EIC finding. No source here measures event staffing demand directly.
If RFPs stay ahead of room nights, a share of today's requests will turn into contracted events over the coming quarters, and each one needs people on the floor. With direct jobs still below 2019 while spending has passed it, the labor side of the sector has less slack than the spending numbers suggest.
- Track your own RFP-to-contract rate. Global RFP volume is a signal. Your conversion rate is the number you can staff against.
- Lock core roles early for the biggest categories. Corporate events (43.8%) and conferences and congresses (29.7%) are the largest categories by direct spend; trade shows add 13.8%. Book registration staff, event security and AV technicians as soon as a contract is signed.
- Check local pay before you budget. Global figures will not tell you what a bartender or banquet server costs in your city. Read how staffing agencies price event staff before you set a budget.
Final words
The 2026 numbers show more events being planned than before the pandemic, and fewer of them confirmed in hotel rooms so far. For hirers, that gap is the staffing pipeline. Staff to the events you have under contract now, and keep a plan ready for the RFPs that convert. For a role-by-role view, start with what event staff do, or find more on the events industry.
