Where demand-driving events are recovering quickly in Europe: Leading Demand Indicators in Europe for September 2021
One of the biggest challenges with tracking the recovery of larger events across Europe is how each country and city has its own experience of the pandemic, as well as its pre-pandemic event landscape. Today, we want to dive into five of the cities with the most events, so businesses seeking to find and optimize demand across Europe can know where to focus.
In this report:
Graphs comparing France and Germany’s recovery so far
Data on the volume of 19,000+ upcoming events in Europe in September 2021
The recovery rate of the seven large European cities by population
Deeper dive into event recovery in five cities including Paris, Barcelona and Istanbul
Lessons learned about making the most of event return, from our USA customers
Understanding event recovery can be complex, so let’s compare just two to start. Below are graphs documenting France’s moderate event recovery as well as Germany’s far less robust recovery.
The below graphs compare the total predicted attendance at attended events (seven of our 19 impactful event types) per week, and use this to identify event impact for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
So both nations are still a while away from having events close to 2019 levels, unlike the US and UK which are both past 70% of their 2019 event levels as of September 2021. Germany in particular looks slow to recover, but the rate of larger events being scheduled over the last month is accelerating, such as this open-air concert expecting 150,000 people just announced.
But to assume nothing is going on and there are no events for companies to make the most of would be a mistake. For example, diving deeper into France's event recovery, we can see sports and expos recovering swiftly. Expos are greats for accommodation and travel companies, while sports are a boon for food and beverage businesses including restaurants, as well as transport and retail companies.
More than 19,500 events in September 2021, with 33% having more than 500 attendees
As of August 30, there are more than 19,500 events scheduled across Europe in the next 30 days, with more than 10,600 of these expecting more than 500 people. Please note this excludes events in the United Kingdom, where events are recovering at such a different pace that we have excluded it from this analysis. So where in Europe are these events taking place?
At a more granular level, in the next 30 days:
Germany has 2,722 events booked, with more than 1,600 of those events expecting more than 500 attendees.
France has 2,742 events booked, with more than 770 of those expecting more than 500 attendees.
Spain has 446 events booked, with more than 330 of those expecting more than 500 attendees.
Sweden has 526 events booked, with more than 350 of those expecting more than 500 attendees.
Italy has 277 events booked, with more than 250 of those expecting more than 500 attendees.
Don’t see a country of interest here? We have global data that is constantly updated and verified, so get in touch with our team to understand how events are returning in your key markets.
How some of Europe’s biggest cities’ event rate compares
But as any demand forecaster, planner, revenue manager or operations manager knows, country level data is interesting but city and region data is even more important.
Below we have documented the impact of events, based on total predicted attendance at all seven types of attended events: concerts, sports, conferences, expos, performing arts, community events and festivals.
Focus on the cities where events are returning
We work with a range of accommodation, QSR, retail and transport businesses across Europe, and they’re all working away on the same question: where should they be focusing their recovery strategies and discovering opportunities to drive revenue after the impact of the pandemic?
Paris, France
As of August 30, there are more than 19,500 events scheduled across Europe in the next 90 days, with more than 10,600 of these expecting more than 500 attendees. So where are these events taking place? Around 1,300 events will take place in Paris, which is experiencing a steady return of events, especially for large expos and conferences, with some of the largest including:
Salon des Véhicules de Loisirs expo from September 25 to October 3 with 80,000 attendees.
SITL conference and expo from September 13 to 15 with up to 24,000 attendees.
Art Paris expo from September 9 to 12 with 45,000 attendees.
Berlin, Germany
Berlin is also seeing the beginnings of recovery of large events, mainly in the sport and expos categories
Some of the largest upcoming events in the next 30 days include:
Berlin Art Week from September 15 to 19 with 80,000 attendees.
Bundesliga - Stuttgart vs Bayer Leverkusen on September 19 with up to 25,000 attendees.
Pure & Crafted Festival from September 17 to September 18 with up to 3,000 attendees.
Baskets Bonn vs Alba Berlin on September 23 with up to 3,000 attendees.
Vienna, Austria
Vienna is also seeing the beginnings of recovery of large events, mostly larger sports games. This is a fairly common event recovery pattern we have observed across the US and UK, where large sports games are the fastest major events to return.
Some of the largest upcoming events in the next 30 days include:
Wiener Kleingarten Messe expo from September 17 to 19 with 12,000 attendees.
UEFA Europa League - Group Stage - Rapid Vienna vs Genk on September 16 with 10,700 attendees.
Bundesliga - Rapid Vienna vs WSG Tirol on October 3 with 12,200 attendees.
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona was one of the fastest European cities to begin to schedule larger events this year, but like much of Europe, is still early in its event recovery journey. September is dominated by large Superbike 2021 events, with some larger expos and concerts mixed in.
Some of the largest upcoming events in the next 30 days include:
Automobile Barcelona from September 30 to October 10 with up to 300,000 attendees.
Superbike 2021 Catalunya - multiple events from September 17 to September 19 with up to 30,000 attendees.
Expoquimia from September 14 to 17 with up to 15,000 attendees.
Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul’s event activity is beginning to return, as well as its role as an events and economic hub in the region. There are clusters of larger conferences and expos being scheduled over the coming months and into early 2022.
Some of the largest upcoming events in the next 30 days include:
ISK-SODEX from September 29 to October 2 with up to 59,000 attendees
Camping and Caravan Istanbul from October 5 to 10 with 24,000 attendees.
Süper Lig - Fatih Karagümrük vs Istanbul Basaksehir on October 1 with 22,000 attendees.
