Event industry: Sales more than halved because of Corona
What already seems logical to common sense is now clearly shown by a major industry survey: one year after Covid-19 also turned life upside down in Switzerland, the local event industry has one foot over the abyss.
The Swiss LiveCom Association Expo Event industry association, in collaboration with its partner associations svtb and Tectum, conducted a survey among its members. In doing so, the associations wanted to provide themselves and the authorities with a representative overview of the situation. In the process, the business owners and executives of 153 companies provided binding information, namely on sales figures, the employee situation, project prospects, the receipt of aid measures and numerous other relevant topics.
Event industry with large loss of gross value added
The numbers speak for themselves: According to the survey, more than 17,000 projects were canceled by the event industry in the crisis year 2020. This resulted in a drop in sales of 57%, which is equivalent to 3.19 billion. CHF. Approximately 4,460 jobs were lost in 2020. Spread across the entire event industry, quite a few companies have ceased operations or completely reoriented themselves. The loss of trade fairs, events and congresses creates a hole of CHF 10 billion in the gross value added.
Further cancellations threaten
All the results of the survey would show how much the survival of most companies from the event industry depends on whether a protective shield for Corona-related cancellations is anchored in the Covid 19 law, according to the media release from the associations involved. That's because even with an end to the pandemic, an end to the emergency is far from in sight for many companies, it said. More than 70% of the survey participants, for example, have applied for a Covid 19 loan, which will take years to pay off. In addition, potential clients are unable and unwilling to provide any certainty about future activities, which will certainly extend the planning uncertainty that has prevailed for a year now well into 2022.
Protective shield demanded
Based on the current epidemiological situation and the current Swiss vaccination schedule, the industry associations assume that there will also be many cancellations in 2021 and 2022. This means that thousands of jobs will continue to be at stake unless a protective shield provides a remedy.
Source: Expo Event
