Business events bounce back confirmed in latest figures
The latest figures from veneudirectory.com confirm the return of confidence in the sector, but with resource challenges still looming large.
The largest booking and data distribution service of venue information in the UK business events industry is on track for more than £320m of confirmed business in 2022 – a significant increase from pre-pandemic levels.
The total level of business confirmed for the 100,000+ global venues on the database in 2019 was £282m – a figure that has already been surpassed as of yesterday (7 November).
The business events sector is now confirming business at a global level with overseas business more than doubling in recent years: 10% in 2019 to 21% this year.
However, despite this global bounce back, the resource pressures continue to bite with venuedirectory.com reporting that venue response times have dropped. In 2019 76% of RFPs were answered within 2 hours compared to 58% in 2022.
Michael Begley, managing director of venuedirectory.com, explains: “While we can take heart from the buoyant picture of confirmed business in 2022 this needs to be balanced out against the wider challenges experienced by our clients such as staffing. The business events sector will need to plan carefully for next year to take into account the continued cost of living crisis and interest rate hikes.
“However, as we saw during the pandemic, our industry is nothing if not resilient. The levels of confirmed business we’ve seen so far this year show that as a sector we can bounce back, although the significant headwinds we have in 2023 mean we have to work even harder to secure business.”