Wyboston Lakes Resort sees 2022 events demand surpass 2019 levels

Wyboston Lakes Resort has revealed bookings for conferences, meetings and training events for 2022 are currently over 140% ahead of 2019, alongside a record number of large events from leading pharmaceutical companies taking place this Autumn.

According to the Bedfordshire-based venue, other sectors that are proving buoyant and the keenest to return to in-person events include government (and associated bodies); associations; professional services, technology, education and training providers, financial services and construction.

It also said there is a “clear trend” for short lead times in 2021, even for relatively sizable events.

It added the findings are backed up by the latest statistics from Trinity Event Solutions that show pharmaceutical event bookings have increased for the agency by 476% in 2022 compared to this year, followed by the finance and insurance industry, which is up by 21%. New business has increased by 266% compared to 2020, and is up by 14% on 2019.

Richard Smith, sales director at Wyboston Lakes Resort, said: “Business is back with a bang. Currently, the market can be split into two: very short lead times for good quality events for 2021, and excellent longer lead bookings for 2022.

“In August for instance, we confirmed significant volumes of events for September and October at almost three to four times the level we’d normally expect. Our provisional base to year-end is well over 200% more than previous years.”

He added: “While it is great to see rapid recovery, it is much more important to see stable growth throughout 2022. Clients now seem confident to book further out. We have benefited from being very proactive throughout the crisis in terms of marketing and business development and the huge recent investment in transforming both of our conference and training centres.

“As a result, our enquiries have stacked up well during the whole of 2021. Year to date our enquiry values are at 96% of what we’d want in any normal year, which means we’ve kept on converting throughout the year.”

He concluded: “However, we do know that there is still a huge amount of work to do to secure the best outcome for both 2021 and 2022. We are also seeing that clients understandably want reassurance over contract clauses and the ability for us to run safe events not just in 2021 but into 2022.

“But overall, it is great to see that our recovery plan for events post pandemic is proving very successful and producing exciting results.”