AAA White Paper The political economy of informal events, 2030 | Page 20

1. CONSUMER EXPENDITURE ON CULTURE AND SPORT
One of the striking things about events is how hard it is to get good
data about them. That applies especially to informal events. The
government’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), its Department
for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and VisitBritain/
VisitEngland, the tourism authority funded by the DCMS, would
all benefit by investing in better coverage of events as an economic
category – and well before 2030, too.
Nevertheless, the broad evidence is clear: events already help
create a great deal of wealth, jobs and social dynamism.
There’s no need to continue with hype about the experience
economy, which in fact dates back to 1997. The story with events is
more interesting than that. It begins, as Chart 2 shows, overleaf,
with the fact that UK consumer spending on cultural, recreational and
sporting services has grown – not least, in the years since the Crash of 2008.
2. THE NUMBER OF ENTERPRISES IN AND AROUND THE
EVENTS SECTOR
Nowadays, a portion of the cultural, recreational and sporting
services that UK consumers spend money on is of course provided
by Big Tech firms headquartered in the US: by Netflix, for example.
Still, a surprisingly large number of UK enterprises directly provide cultural,
recreational and sporting services.
Not all the enterprises in Chart 3 (overleaf) were, in 2017, directly
in events; but we can be sure that very many of them were. The chart
shows that the UK has nearly 9,600 enterprises in performing arts,
more than 21,500 in sport, and several thousand more in other
events-based leisure. By contrast, the UK’s business events sector is
relatively concentrated: it boasts just 3,885 enterprises.
The 2017 total of about 31,000 enterprises strictly in performing
arts and sport compares with a 2018 total of 171,000 VAT- and/or PAYE-
based enterprises in what the ONS classifies as ‘arts, entertainment,
recreation and other services’. So: events enterprises in performing
arts and sport make up a respectable 18 per cent of those in the wider
field of culture and recreation, including enterprises that offer
museums, historical sites, gyms, betting shops and the like.
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