Hybrid Events and Congresses and Their Impact on the Greek Meetings Industry

Both the economic crisis and the pandemic outbreak significantly changed the meetings industry and the organization process of conferences and other events. Mobility restrictions and social distancing, necessary to reduce and subsequently minimize the pandemic and turn it into an endemic, initially led to the cancellation of the vast majority of conferences and events worldwide. However, shortly after the restrictions’ induction, the industry used all tools provided by online platforms to organize virtual conferences that dominated the pandemic era as they met at a certain extent the industry needs. After the gradual de-escalation of the health protocols, hybrid conferences emerged as the new norm of the COVID-19 era. Online conferences, although a necessity, became disastrous for the meetings industry. Thus, hybrid conferences are an intermediate solution, as there is no sign of immediate return to traditional conferences in the near future. The aim of this paper was to investigate how hybrid conferences affected the Greek Meetings Industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, we conducted both a primary and secondary research; primary data were collected by interviewing the administrative personnel of hotels, PCOs, DMCs and audiovisual companies, and secondary data were obtained by reviewing journals, relevant studies conducted by tourism associations and also UNWTO statistics. Our results confirmed that hybrid events are currently the preferred type of the Hellenic Conferences industry and will play a major role in the years to come. We believe that this study provides evidence that hybrid conferences will set a new standard for the conduct of conferences in the post-COVID-19 era.