Event Industry during COVID-19 Pandemic in Sweden; Impact, Recovery and Future Trends

Abstract: Tourism industry is one of the hardest hits by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Event industry as an important stakeholder of tourism has been fiercely damaged globally. In this study the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the event industry businesses in Sweden, their methods of coping with this situation and the recovery plans will be evaluated. Further some predictions about the future trends and possible transformations of the industry have been made. This research has been conducted qualitatively and by gathering data from both primary and secondary sources provided a very broad reference for the researcher. Restrictions in Sweden started with a 500-person limit then the figures went down to 50 people, followed by 8 people, afterwards 300 and finally 8 people limit again. Commercially, it has been difficult to conduct business due to the massive uncertainty brought on by COVID-19 for all the companies in the event industry in Sweden. Cancelling or postponing events caused huge revenue losses, redundancies, closing businesses etc. limitations and uncertainties brought by COVID-19 pandemic forced some innovative companies to start rethinking their event packages. By upskilling staff and digital investing in building the needed infrastructures, many event companies could step into the virtual and hybrid events landscape. Meanwhile , Small to medium-sized companies suffered the most in terms of tackling the situation due to limited resources and severity of the situation. The forceful hiatus to hold-on till going back to normal has been the best solution for those who were not able to come up with coping strategies. Clearly by the mass vaccine distribution, the event industry will gradually go back to its normal status quo, while virtual on demand and hybrid events will stay as important components of the industry.The result of this study reveals the value of resiliency and being prepared that will help companies to survive during crisis situations. But after all, although this pandemic is a disruption that caused many challenges for the event industry. But, at the same time it brought many dynamic opportunities for the sector to slowly evolve and develop.