Digital marketing agency Patch has revealed that its venue clients have seen an average 294% increase in enquiries in the week following the Prime Ministerโs announcement on 22ndย February.
An assortment of venues from across London saw a large uptick in enquiries for both corporate and private events after the news, with some seeing increases as high as 550%. The majority of bookings were concentrated within Q3 and Q4, however most also saw interest as soon as the end of Q2, and as late as 2022.
โThese statistics demonstrate that having guidelines on what will be allowed and when is the confidence boost weโve been so desperately waiting for,โ said Jackson Clark, Managing Director at Patch. โNow that businesses and individuals have an idea of what the future will look like, all the pent-up demand has been released and those who have been waiting to start planning events can commit with some certainty.
โOf course, the event industry knows better than almost any other that nothing is guaranteed, but I think the speed of the current vaccination schedule and โno going backโ attitude is what will finally kick-off the start of the industryโs recovery.
โWhilst we saw no big pattern to what types of event people are prioritising, one common theme was an influx of enquiries for celebratory events โ receptions, award ceremonies, dinners, and even summer and Christmas parties. After a year spent making sacrifices by all, I donโt think anyone should be surprised that people are ready and raring to let their hair down!โ
Almost all venues also saw an increase in interest for conferences, meetings and educational events, whilst demand for filming and photography bookings remained strong. Some of those venues with events scheduled for April/May also saw them postponed to later in the year, around Q3 and Q4.
Catherine Owen, Head of Venue Sales & Marketing at 10-11 Carlton House Terrace said: โThe roadmap was a very welcome government announcement. While not all answers have been provided, it did give enough clarity and confidence to kickstart enquiries.
โWe have seen a massive increase in wedding, micro wedding and celebration enquiries and it is evident people are ready to come together and celebrate after the year we have collectively been through. Excitingly we have also seen an increase in corporate bookings and the appetite remains strong for hybrid and virtual events, so we have our own dedicated studio to cater for that.โ
Ruby Chagger, Conference and Sales Manager at Congress Centre, added: โWe were delighted to finally get some dates on when we can hopefully start welcoming clients back through the doors at Congress Centre. It has been a tough year for everyone in the hospitality industry, however we know weโre resilient and can bounce back with little notice, that’s what we do!
โAs soon as the announcement was made, we saw an increase in enquiries for large conferences in particular as well as some dinners and receptions. Many of these were for the last quarter of the year which just shows us that organisations can’t wait to meet, and confidence is on the rise.ย We can’t wait to get back to the hustle and bustle of live events.โ
