A survey by City of London’s consortium of venues, London City Selection, has revealed business growth for more than 90% of respondents in 2017, 15% more than last year’s survey.
Of those members questioned, 78% revealed that meeting and events bookings were the business area of greatest growth, up from 69% last year. Of these, 25% saw a rise between 6 and 10%, and almost 40% of respondents confirmed that their M&E business had increased by up to 5% year-on-year.
The business area of least growth for member venues was Christmas parties, with almost 40% reporting a positive yet consistent level of bookings in 2016, however 30% confirmed a growth between of 1% and 10%. Another business area that mirrored 2016’s bookings were summer parties, with over 45% of venues confirming bookings remained the same year on year.
Chair of LCS Rowan Kitching (pictured) described the findings of the annual report and the feedback given by the members as “encouraging, despite the economic and political uncertainty”. Kitching added it had been a great year for membership, which was up to 32, compared to 25 a year ago.
Social media played a role in generating bookings for venues in 2017, the survey found, with 90% of respondents reporting they used Twitter as part of their sales and marketing efforts, 60% used Instagram and Facebook, while 50% used LinkedIn.
The survey revealed that 72% of those who used Twitter found the social media platform an effective way to secure enquiries and bookings, followed by Instagram as the second most successful platform at 36% and 27% for LinkedIn.
When asked whether business had been affected by the EU Referendum in June 2016, two-thirds hadn’t seen any effect at all, with 17% seeing a positive impact and 16% see an initial negative effect.
Kitching added: “We asked all our members what encouraged them to join the consortium or repeat their membership, and we were very pleased to learn that the main reasons for joining were “to co-promote the City of London as an events destination” and to “share knowledge among industry peers, both of which are at the heart of what we set out to do each year.”
Good enquiries were generated by the agency’s annual familiarisation trip, ‘Game of Venues’, which took place in February 2017. A quarter of venues have since reported enquiries collectively worth tens of thousands of pounds, the consortium reports.
