Eventia’s research into the impact of the recession on the events industry has revealed event spend for the year ending December 2010 fell by 13% compared to 2009. Eventia’s UK Events Market Trends Survey 2011 was compiled from data supplied by 360 UK venues. The study reveals that, while the number of b2b events staged – approximately 1.3 million in 2010 – was similar to 2009, the level of expenditure they generated fell from £18.8bn to £16.3bn in the same period.
Overnight stays for corporate events fell, with only 21% of events being residential in 2010, compared with 26% in 2009. Event duration in 2010 remained stable at 1.5 days, but the majority – 68% –lasted one day or less, compared to 64% in 2009. Meanwhile, corporate b2b events increased their share of the overall events market, accounting for 51% of all events staged in 2010, compared to 47% in 2009.
Venue managers surveyed were optimistic about 2011, with 42% expecting business to increase from 2010 levels, and 36% anticipating it will remain the same.
Eventia’s UK Events Market Trends Survey 2011 findings also include:
• An estimated 99 million attendances at events in 2010 (based on an estimated 1.3m events with an average attendance of 76 people)
• An average of 371 events per venue in 2010, down slightly on 2009, which saw an average of 379 events per venue.
• Venues perceive ‘price’ and ‘value for money’ as the single most important selection criterion for buyers (scoring 87%), followed by location (68%), access (66%) and quality of meeting facilities (60%)
• Web-based marketing is now the most effective and productive of all types of venue marketing activity, rated by 44 per cent of venues.
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