PCMA release results of first-ever APAC research post-COVID outbreak
Planners are struggling to budget for hybrid events as they try to find the balance between taking an event online and managing face-to-face attendee’s expectations, and 61 per cent of planners and 47 per cent of suppliers are only willing to travel within their country for a business event according to research conducted by the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), the world’s largest platform for business events planners.
The research, a regional first, is the largest multi-country business event research conducted since the onset of COVID-19 and included 531 event industry professional participants – 342 planners and 189 suppliers. PCMA conducted its COVID-19 Recovery Dashboard survey in the APAC region between 7 – 15 July 2020, across Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, China, Korea and Japan.
Forty-one percent of planners believe smaller and regional events will come back sooner than larger international events, while 27 percent believe small in-person events will need to go hybrid, and large events wholly digital.
The survey revealed most business event planners have no intention of travelling any time soon with almost two-thirds (60 percent) of planners saying they would only travel within their own country for a business event in 2020, while 10 percent would travel to another country in APAC. The suppliers reported being more willing to travel; with 48 percent saying they would only travel in their own country, 17 percent would travel within APAC and 22 percent would go anywhere, ‘if it was worth it’.
PCMA will conduct further research in the APAC region over the coming months.