We know that it will take some time to get back to a period of stability, but we are confident that international events could be restored by 2021.
In mid-September 2020 we have sent a Covid-19-related survey to all the agencies we have visited since 2015 to find out their opinion about future events and have received 42 responses. This will help us know how to approach sales strategies in the coming months and next year.
The survey is based on 7 questions with various answer options and some with option to write a free text. The first question is “when you imagine your next event, do you think of places near your home country or faraway destinations?” To this question 72% say that the next event they will organize will surely be within their own country, while 16% say it could be in any city in Europe.
The next question is: “do you think your customers will choose Spain as the venue for their event if there is a Vaccine for Covid-19?” and 48.8% responded perhaps and 44.2% are resounding yes, so 93% of respondents see it with positivism to travel abroad when the vaccine exists. In the comments section they have left some reflections such as these: “the vaccine would make it easier for us to travel”, “there is still interest in our customers in traveling to Spain in the coming year” and “we have a confirmed event in Malaga by the spring of 2021”.
On the question “would your customers participate in an event if they had to wear a mask?” we are clear. Nearly 12% said yes, however 42% announced that they would not participate using the mask and the remaining 46% said maybe. We got some comments on this issue: “in Sweden we are not used to using a masc, it is more about keeping the distance”, “if the mask is mandatory it would be done anyway, but we obviously prefer not to wear it”, “most people would find it very uncomfortable, but we are willing to wear it if it’s mandatory”, “no one likes to wear the mask, but if it is the only way to travel , there is no other option”, “our customers will not travel abroad until they consider it safe”.
The fourth question is about when they think foreign travel will be reactivated. The vast majority with 72.1% point out that this will surely happen in the second half of 2021 while 20.9% think it won’t be before 2022. The 7% minority says international travel will return in the first half of 2021.
We asked them, if their clients are currently organizing events and only 18% said yes. We are told that most companies now work from home and only participate in virtual meetings and some travel with small groups and only nationally. We’ve found that nearly 40% of the agencies are organizing virtual or hybrid events for their clients.
Finally we wanted to know if their customers are eager to organize face-to-face events and 51.2% responded yes but gradually and 32.6% said that they want to do events again as soon as possible. Finally some participants wrote some comments at the end of the survey and we would like to highlight this one: “I always feel grateful and happy to hear good news about the industry in order to be able to share it with our customers so that the destinations will continue in our minds when it will be possible to travel again”.
