Visitors find safety at events the most important thing

Visitors find safety at events the most important thing

An event must first and foremost be safe. This is the conclusion of the research conducted by Event Confederation among a representative sample of 1,000 event visitors.


More than 2/3 of Belgians have visited one or more events in the past year. In Flanders, almost 3 out of 4. In Wallonia, 40% have not visited any events. "We have noticed a decrease in visitor numbers in our country since the last quarter of last year," Christine Merckx emphasizes. "In October, 77% of Belgians still indicated that they had visited events in the past year. In January, this dropped to 72% and in April we see this number drop further to 68%."


The most recent quarterly survey by Event Confederation also shows that 77% of Belgians expect the economic climate to deteriorate in the coming year. 38% even indicate that due to the uncertain current economic climate they plan to visit fewer events this year. Only 43% of Belgians also believe that the new federal government is taking the right steps.



Safety over sustainability

That there is a connection between the declining trust, the declining number of visitors and the striking importance that the Belgian attaches to safety at events is not illogical, according to the manager of Event Confederation. Moreover, despite the critical importance that is attached to sustainability and sustainable events, 41% of Belgians think that safety is the most important thing when visiting an event. 27% think that an event should be accessible above all and only 6% think that an event should be sustainable first and foremost.


"Despite the lessons learned from the corona crisis and the terrorist attacks that our event sector has had to deal with in recent years, it is remarkable that the government does not put safety at the top of the agenda. Just think of subsidies to organize events more safely. Do they even exist? Sustainability, innovation and digitalization are the pillars on which the government focuses. That is good. But we would also like to see at least the same efforts and support for event safety. Today, legislation is too fragmented, not transparent enough and insufficiently tailored to the specificities of our sector. We hope that our new government will quickly take the right steps in this regard," concludes Christine Merckx.

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