Event planners are gaining greater confidence to run live events as shown by £1.6m worth of contacts that were signed or booked in three days after Plan B restrictions were lifted, according to etc.venues.
In addition to the contracts signed, business valued at £0.4m moved forward from enquiry to draft contract: £0.5m was for events taking place in Q1.
The number of enquiries was also up week-on-week, increasing by nearly 20%, according to the company.
Adam Simpson, director of marketing at etc.venues, said: “This is a great start to the year for our business and a terrific boost to the recovery of the industry. Many clients are relieved we did not have another national lockdown as it bodes well for the rest of the year and has encouraged them to plan for multiple events through to the end of 2022.
“These are mostly for live only events and backs up our latest research which revealed that event planners are returning to live only events faster than expected.”
Research carried out by etc.venues at the end of last year showed that 28% of respondents have already held live only events. This was 8% higher than forecast in the July survey for a return to live only events in 2021.
The recent research also suggested that a further 23% will go back to live only events in 2022 but based on recent increase in demand this could be closer to 60%.
“This suggests 2022 will be the year of meeting up,” said Simpson.
