Black Immigrant Daily News
Event promoters are expecting a bumper crop this holiday with consumers shelling out for big-ticket events despite price increases in basic amenities such as gas and food, which have left many Jamaicans financially stretched this year.
The latest survey of Business and Consumer Confidence – which indicated a 4.2 percentage points increase in consumer confidence also revealed that consumers were less inclined to make capital investments in terms of housing but were instead gung-ho about travel and vacations.
This is in fact playing out as event promoters say they have already begun to see “evidence of that spend and that desire to come out and enjoy themselves,” Kibwe McGann, WiPay country manager toldLoop News.
Speaking to Nigerian sensation Burna Boy’s Love Damini concert tour that took place at the National Stadium in Kingston on the weekend, McGann said ticket sales were “somewhere in the region of 20,000 to 30, 000.”
Tickets for the concert range from $7,500 for general to $45,000 for VVIP with a 45,000-seating capacity of the venue.
Entertainment is, therefore “high up on the list of what people want,” he said.
The allure of ‘likes’ on social media has also spurred the desire to spend and be ‘outside,’ it seems.
“Many people are fueled by what they see on social media and as such events are benefiting from it. People are willing to spend to go to these events to claim the bragging rights on social media or the instant gratification from the numbers of ‘likes,’” he said.
“It is fueled by the younger population. I think older people make long-term decisions and younger people make decisions for tomorrow,” he reasoned.
It makes both dollars and ‘sense’ for event organizers to “put up things like photo walls that become a major thing at events along with the d?cor so that people can put up their photos on Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook,” McGann said.
“So, I can tell you from now that for this holiday season, every event sell off, McGann, who heads up marketing and event management outfit, Intuit Concepts, said.
For Main Event’s CEO Solomon Sharpe, the elasticity in the prices of events is cushioned by the quality in the execution of the entertainment package as “consumers will respond positively to any price increase [and] show up once you are giving [them] quality, that’s what we’ve realized.”
Sharpe responded to questions at the latest quarterly review by the Jamaica Conference Board Survey of Business and Consumer Confidence, presented by pollster Don Anderson, CEO of Market Research Services Limited.
In giving his read on the impact of prices increases on inputs to the entertainment industry as well as on the 18.3 per cent improvement in business confidence, Sharpe said that despite having to pass on increases in Main Event’s services to promoters who use his company to execute events, and the resultant increased price to patrons, both the promoters and the consumers have still come away happy.
“The promoters who use Main Events for their executions have paid more and come out very happy. Their consumers are [also] very happy,” he said.
For him, “the most important thing for anybody who is distributing a product, whether it’s a party or anything else, is just to give your consumers quality and once you do that, they will be there to support you day in and day out.”
“I don’t think the promoters have a choice but to increase the prices,” Sharpe further told Loop News, given all the increases in the factors of production.
“…And the more expensive your ticket is, the more you have to treat it like a luxury good or item,” Sharpe said.
By Tameka Gordon
NewsAmericasNow.com
