UK Industry Status Report

We’ve reached a new era in the events industry. 

The landscape we see today is unrecognisable from that of the pre-pandemic era. With participation numbers continuing to lag across the UK, it’s still a tough time to be an event organiser.

The events market is cluttered. With potential participants now more watchful of their spending, reduced demand is making the competition to attract their attention ever fiercer.

To help you understand what’s going on - and how those around you are faring - we've compiled a new report, full of internal and external market data, as well as insight from LDT user surveys and industry experts (download link below).

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Key Takeaways

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Running events have lost 20-40% of participants compared to 2019 📉

Participation has decreased particularly for longer distances (e.g. marathons and half marathons) in comparison to 5k races.

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Cost is the biggest factor driving reduced participation, but free events are also down 💸

Participants count cost as the single biggest deterrent to attending races. Of those who report ever having been put off attending an event, 60% cite cost as a main contributing factor. And whilst better recovered than paid-for events, 2022 attendance is reduced for free events when compared to 2019.

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Female participation has taken a particularly large hit 👩

The balance of male to female participants has decreased from 43.1% in 2019 to 40.3% in 2022 - an almost 7% relative decrease in female participants. This decrease is seen across a variety of data sources, for all event distances, and is most pronounced for women in the 20-40 age bracket.

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Focus Areas

It's not all doom and gloom, though. To help you cut through the noise, we’ve also pulled out some focus areas you should be prioritising right now to put your events in the best possible position to succeed.

While some of the data in the report does make comparisons back to 2019, we want to be really clear: we no longer believe it’s a case of sitting, waiting and wishing for industry conditions to improve. It’s about ensuring your business is equipped to navigate a much changed events landscape.

So, if you want to find out more about how you can maximise revenue, encourage female participation, and attract younger participants - download your free copy below!

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_{Click here to to download the full report}

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