Meeting Cancellations Mount as Trump Administration Orders Take Effect

The Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau in Rhode Island received its first business meeting cancellation on January 27. The conference, focused on renewable offshore wind energy, included 3,300 room nights and was expected to bring $1.8 million in direct spending.

“We were told to stop the contracting process due to funding concerns,” said Thomas Riel, senior VP of the bureau. President Donald Trump's administration’s policy shift on climate change contributed to this cancellation, said Riel.

Three more cancellations, including a conference focused on veteran affairs and an IRS meeting, followed.

“These groups represent a loss of $2.4 million in direct spend and 5,235 lost room nights,” said Riel.

Most Cancellations Can't Be Replaced

Another group has verbally canceled, with written confirmation pending. “That meeting encompasses 2,536 room nights, another million-dollar loss,” said Riel. It was being funded by the Department of the Interior.

“It was set to begin on May 5. There is no way we can replace this business,” said Riel.

Looking ahead, Riel is bracing for further fallout. “There are 30,000 additional room nights in our sales funnel that are threatened,” he said.

Providence has spent the past decade positioning itself as a hub for scientific meetings and conventions. “If we were a big city, we’d pivot to corporate business and shift to those markets that are under less threat, but we are a small destination,” he said.

In addition to these multi-property meetings, single-property business is also being impacted, said Kristen Adamo, president and CEO of the bureau. 

In 2024, the Providence convention bureau booked 245 groups, representing 140,000 room nights and a direct spend of $100 million. Of those, 40% are sports-related groups.

Government Meetings in Jeopardy

The impact extends beyond Providence. Government meetings across the country are taking a hit, according to Brett Sterenson, president of Hotel Lobbyists, a site-selection firm specializing in government events.

Since January 20, Sterenson has had 21 government group cancellations, representing $550,000 in lost hotel revenue.

Last year, Sterenson booked 467 groups, 75% of which were government groups. Many of the meetings he books are also for associations whose members are state or federal employees.

His lead volume has also decreased. By the end of last February, he had sourced 90 groups. This year, it is 40.

Most of these cancellations are for meetings scheduled for January, February, and March 2025. His latest cancellation is for a meeting in May.

“Based on what is happening, I am afraid cancellations will triple over the next 30 days,” he said.

Is It Force Majeure?

Most government meeting contracts include waived cancellation and attrition penalties, said Sterenson. One of the hotels he is dealing with is pushing back on whether the cancellation is force majeure. 

Whether a canceled government meeting qualifies as force majeure largely depends on contract language, said attorney Joshua Grimes.

“If the federal government directs an agency to cancel or bars employees from attending a government-sponsored meeting, that likely constitutes a ‘governmental order or regulation’ under force majeure,” Grimes said. However, for privately organized meetings, proving impossibility or illegality becomes more challenging. Governments rarely order that private meetings be canceled.

To strengthen force majeure claims, Grimes advises including ‘commercially impracticable’ in contracts alongside ‘impossible or illegal.’ He also recommends specifying the meeting’s purpose in the contract. Without a clear statement of what the meeting is about, it's harder to prove that government action was a serious disruption.