SITE最新调查：贸易展效率受认可但教育功能关注度偏低
New Research: Trade Shows Are Delivering Efficiency, but Education Isn’t Pulling Its Weight
SITE调查显示，尽管46%的受访者将成本上升视为最大挑战，但59.5%认为大型贸易展的重要性在提升，因其能高效替代多次单独差旅。然而供需双方诉求存在差异：代理机构最看重深化关系（52.4%），而酒店、DMC及目的地营销组织的首要动机均为潜在客户开发（占比38.7%-44.4%）。
该研究揭示了买家与供应商对展会核心诉求的差异，并指出教育板块的低关注度可能意味着主办方的资源投入未能有效转化为参展商看重的商业回报。
Photo Credit: IMEX America 2026. IMEX
A new survey by the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) reinforced that trade shows are still the preferred way to meet for both buyers and sellers. The survey included input from 657 respondents across four core groups: buyers, hotels and suppliers, destination management companies, and destination marketing organizations and convention bureaus.
With almost half (46%) of respondents citing rising costs as their biggest challenge, trade shows allow them to see many people at once on the same dime.
“At the big global shows, such as IMEX America, IMEX Frankfurt, and IBTM World in Barcelona, buyers can meet all the hotels, DMCs, and destinations in three days that they would otherwise spend months travelling to see,” said Rebecca Wright, SITE interim CEO. “For a time-poor buyer, one well-run show replaces a great many separate trips.”
Almost 6 in 10 respondents (59.5%) believe major trade shows are growing in importance, and only 3.5% foresee any decline in participation.
However, buyers and suppliers often want different things from the same show. While 52.4% of agencies and incentive houses said deepening existing relationships was the most important function of trade shows. corporate buyers were more transactional. They split almost evenly between contracting and closing business (25.7%) and deepening relationships (24.8%). Meanwhile, lead generation was the top motivator for hotels and suppliers (38.7%), DMCs (43.4%), and DMOs/convention bureaus (44.4%).
Wright pointed out that efficiency is not the same as affordability. “Cost is the single biggest challenge for all respondents. The shows that thrive will be the ones that control the cost of access, protect buyer time, and help exhibitors prove their return.”
Only 9.3% of all respondents viewed education as the top function of a trade show, and the segment with the least interest was DMOs/CVBs at 2.2%.
"Education represents a substantial investment of time, budget, and expertise for trade show organizers, so its relatively low ranking deserves attention,” said Pádraic Gilligan, head of consultancy and research at SITE. “These findings raise a question about how that investment contributes to the outcomes buyers and suppliers value."
来源：Skift Meetings · meetings.skift.com