The recent announcements that two of the vaccines being developed at breakneck speed to target Covid-19 have been found to be effective, at least in the initial findings, has given the meetings sector a boost, according to event venue provider etc.venues.
The company says there was “a noticeable increase” in bookings for meetings and events for both its UK and New York venues immediately after the news of the ‘imminent’ availability of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Adam Simpson, the company’s director of marketing and US sales, said: “The organisers of several major events provisionally booked for Q2 and Q3 2021 confirmed them while at the same time there was an influx of new enquiries and bookings for Q1 onwards.
“This clearly demonstrates that, given a reason to be more confident, event planners are ready to return to running live and hybrid events as soon as they feel safe to do so. It’s very encouraging.”
The company said it had continued to host many meetings for fewer than 30 people throughout recent months, both in-person and hybrid.
The company has also gained a supplementary source of revenue from bookings for its rooms as workspace as a result of changes to requirements and working practices resulting from Covid-19. It says it acquired £2 million in bookings from businesses of all sizes for workspace for the second half of 2020 and many of these regular bookings are set to continue into 2021.
Amex Meetings & Events recently said that 2021 budgets were lower and that virtual meetings were here to stay,