According to a study released today, the UK business events industry believes enquiry and bookings will begin to rise in September 2020.
The Business Events Sentiment survey, which was created by PR agency davies tanner, in partnership with the Business Visits & Events Partnership (BVEP), polled 556 business events professionals across the UK.
In the survey, 38 per cent of respondents said September 2020 would be the month they expect to see both enquiries and bookings begin to increase, though some believe this will happen sooner, with 12 per cent indicating July as the beginning of the recovery period.
A further 10 per cent believe this will be August, while 13 per cent indicated the industry won’t start making a recovery until October this year.
"The results show that the industry is confident that the sector will slowly recover and indicates a positive outlook for the future with a number of respondents having taken or made booking enquiries in the last month," BVEP vice chair, Simon Hughes told M&IT.
"Whilst September 2020 is expected to be the most significant month for recovery, in terms of enquiry levels, this is, of course, dependent on how long the current lockdown continues and what social distancing measures may be in place and for how long."
The report also indicated that many event planners (33 per cent) have taken or made booking enquires in the last month. However, 60 per cent of respondents said bookings have stopped completely.
However, when asked whether they thought their businesses would make a full recovery, only half of the respondents said they were either ‘totally optimistic’ or ‘somewhat optimistic’ that there will be a full return to normality in their organisation. While 38 per cent believe that their business will not return to how it was.
"The BVEP is in regular conversations with Government officials at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and continue to put forward recommendations that could provide the quickest and safest return for our sector, and continue to provide relevant updates to the wider business events community as they become available,” added Hughes.
Download a free copy of the report here.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
