Economic impact of the meetings industry on a nation's development and the example of Serbia

The meetings industry creates significant effect on destination development, on a national, regional and local level. The meetings industry market generates a strong direct, indirect and induced effect, and only the five strongest economies in Europe, generate alone over $140 billion. However, it is necessary to understand that the measuring meetings industry impact is very complicated due to market specifics, and therefore limits are clearly defined. Research has shown that in 2017 the global international association meetings market has generated impact of $12 billion, while this market only in Serbia generated over $26 million. The meetings industry is an important product for Serbia and it is realistic to expect further improvements of destination performances of this sector, since the achieved multiplicative effects will fast-forward the development of Serbia.