As the number, size, and variety of meetings have grown, so has the industry’s
contribution to the national economy. In a study sponsored by the Convention
Liaison Council in 1994, the meetings industry employed more than
1.5 million persons full-time while generating $82.8 billion in direct spending,
which amounted to approximately 2% of Gross National Product (Tanner,
1997). This spending translated into $12.3 billion in tax revenues, with nearly
$2 billion (15.6%) of this amount going to local governments. To put this into
perspective, this was a little less than half of the annual appropriation for the
Community Development Block Grant Program ($4.675 billion in 1998),
which has been a staple of central-city governments since the 1970s.