Vartotojų požiūris į renginių organizatorių paslaugas Covid-19 sąlygomis
LTStraipsnyje siekiama išsiaiškinti renginių lankytojų įpročių pokyčius naujomis pandemijos sąlygomis. Šiam tikslui pasiekti iškeliami uždaviniai: apžvelgti renginių industrijos koncepciją (sąvoką, struktūrą) ir atskleisti vystymosi tendencijas pandemijos sąlygomis; aprašyti tyrimo metodus ir sąlygas; aptarti vartotojų požiūrio į renginių organizatorių paslaugas COVID-19 sąlygomis tyrimo rezultatus. Darbe naudojami mokslinės literatūros šaltinių lyginamoji analizė, aprašomoji analizė, kiekybinis tyrimo metodas – apklausa. Esminius gautus rezultatus galima apibrėžti keliomis išvadomis. Iki pandemijos visuomenėje nebuvo dominuojančios renginių grupės, o virtualūs renginiai nebuvo populiarūs vartotojų tarpe. Pandemijos metu prie pasikeitusių sąlygų greičiausiai prisitaikė verslo, kultūros ir pramogų sektoriai. Sunkiausiai sekėsi sporto renginių ir viešųjų renginių organizatoriams. Paprašius respondentus palyginti virtualius renginius su organizuojamais gyvai, teigiami atsiliepimai dauguma atveju yra gyvai organizuojamų renginių naudai. Tai leidžia teigti, kad, baigiantis pandemijai, dauguma turėtų grįžti į gyvuosius renginius. Kita vertus, virtualūs renginiai taip pat užims savo dalį renginių industrijos rinkoje. [Iš leidinio]
ENThe need to organize events is not a new phenomenon. From antient times, groups of people — families, clans, tribes, communities — have come together for an event, usually for social, cultural, or commercial purposes. Moreover, the event industry is very important in today’s economy. According to data published by the International Congress and Convension Association (ICCA) 13,254 meetings of various levels took place worldwide in 2019, with a total global congress market of 40 million events, 2 billion participants and more than € 800 billion in annual sales income. In addition, investment in business events in various related industries (such as restaurants and hotels, shops, transport, etc.) has a 5-7 times greater economic impact. COVID-19 has substantially revised all plans. Various researchers (Disimulacion, 2020; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020; Carlsson-Szlezak, Reeves and Swartz, 2020; Stock, 2020) note that the event industry has been undermined by the government’s efforts to manage the pandemic. Even considering the strict quarantine that lasted for several months in most countries, the losses to the industry are huge. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the impact of COVID-19 is five times higher than in 2009 of global economic crisis (WTTC, 2020): it could affect up to € 1 billion. travelers and will bring up to 1 trillion. losses for the tourism sector alone. Research problem. The event industry is suffering huge losses in the difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. How do consumers view the organization of events in the new conditions? Main aim is to find out the attitude of consumers to the services of event organizers in the conditions of a pandemic.Objectives are: to review the concept of the event industry and to reveal development trends in a pandemic environment; describe the research methods and conditions; discuss the results of a survey on consumer attitudes towards event organizer services under COVID-19. Methods used in research: comparative analysis of scientific literature sources, descriptive analysis, quantitative research method – survey. Despite differing interpretations of the concept of event, all the authors emphasize three commonalities: organization, planning and time constraint. If the concept of an event has common features in researchers’ texts, then the name of the industry is still the subject of debate. The scientific literature is dominated by three titles: Event Industry, Meeting Industry and MICE (Meeting, Incentive Tour, Convention, and Exhibition). Due to the multiple structure of the event industry, classifying events is not straightforward. The contribution of Lithuanian authors to the classification of the events industry is significant and noticeable. J. Raišutienė and S. Virbauskaitė (2017) summarized the different classifications of the event industry types of various researchers and presented a list of as many as 18 types. The distributions proposed by foreign authors are similar. The most common groups are: business events, private events, educational events, sport events, cultural events, recreational events, art events and political events. In most parts of the world, security measures of similar stringency have been introduced almost simultaneously: from the requirements to washing hands, wearing a face mask, maintain social distance to closing educational and other institutions, working from home, introduction of curfew, and so on. With such constraints, it is difficult to continue organizing events. One of the key offers and opportunities in this case is virtual or hybrid events.The aim of the study is to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the user of the event industry and how consumers attitude towards live and virtual events have changed. It was also important to find out if the virtual events will remain attractive after the end of the pandemic. The course of the study consisted of several stages. First, in January-February of 2021 was written survey instrument – questionnaire. Second, in March-April of 2021 the online survey was conducted. Finally, in May-June of 2021 the results were analyzed and summarized. The following quantitative survey methods were used in the study: written survey method using Google Forms survey administration software; methods for systematization and graphical representation of descriptive statistics using Microsoft Excel. Prior to the pandemic, there was no dominant group of events in Lithuanian society, and virtual events were not popular with users. On average about 65% of respondents (60 to 70%, depending on the type of event) never attended virtual events. In comparison, organizes live events was absolute – in average only 10% of respondents never visited them. The pandemic has brought significant changes to the events management. It can be said that there have been structural changes in the events industry. Prior to the pandemic, popular event groups included cultural and entertainment events, as well as sporting events and public events. Business events (internal or external) erupted during the pandemic. Consequently, the business, cultural and entertainmental events sectors are likely to have adapted to the changed conditions. The organizers of sports events and public events had the hardest time. When respondents were asked to compare virtual events with live events, positive feedback was given mostly in favor of live events. 75% of respondents lacked of participation in events and as many as 81.3% of respondents lacked participation in live events. [From the publication]
