Return to Fun Runs Survey - July Report

Introduction

At the beginning of July Register Now conducted another round of the “Return to Fun Runs during COVID-19” survey to understand the general sentiment of the Australian running community and how it develops as conditions evolve.

Topics around comfortability of attendance and general participation numbers were assessed to give event organisers some understanding around consumer confidence toward running events in a COVID-safe society.

Respondents were asked during the period 1 July to 8 July 2020 to indicate their comfortability around Fun Run event participation, how comfortable they would be participating in events now, in three months (October) and in 2021.

How data was collected

Register Now contacted current Clients that have held running events over the past 12 months. Clients that wanted to be involved then emailed their respective event databases or Register Now did so on their behalves. The survey was also posted and promoted to the broader Australian running community across social media (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn).

1,045 respondents participated in the survey, the results were slightly skewed towards a Victorian audience (38%) which is important to note with Victoria going back into stage three restrictions during the time of the survey. All other states in Australia during this time were easing their restrictions, which is important in considering the data. If you would like to view the data for a specific state be sure to contact us directly.

All data:

• 85.81% of participants said they would feel comfortable participating in a Fun Run in 2020.
• Only 4%of participants would not take part in any Fun Run events till a vaccine is found
• 11.95% stated they would still not feel comfortable participating in any events in 2021 regardless of the event’s size.
• The majority of participants would feel comfortable running in a Fun Run in 2021 (54.09%)
• Respondents were asked to rank (1-6) out of a list of safety measures, which one would make them feel most comfortable when deciding to enter a Fun Run during and post-COVID. This is what participants rated as most important:
  • Limiting Participant Numbers (30.37%)
  • Refund & deferment policy (20.07%)
  • Social distancing guidelines/policies (19.08%)
  • Temperature checks on arrival (15.79%)
  • Hand sanitiser stations (5.59%)
  • Limiting/eliminate spectators (4.82%)
  • Contact tracing (4.28%)
• 35.18% of participants said they would feel comfortable participating in a Fun Run this weekend with up to 500 participants involved and 28.54% only feeling comfortable with up to 100 participants.
• In three months time (October) 29.11% of participants said they would feel comfortable taking part in a Fun Run with up to 500 participants involved and another 28.56%of participants would feel comfortable with an event up to 1000 participants.

The plan going forward will be to survey these respondents again at the beginning of each month to track how attitudes evolve as virus hotspots move and restrictions change around Australia.

Conclusion

This data is a reflection of respondents’ attitudes towards returning to participation based Fun Run events and not a reflection of Government restrictions/ permissions. Insights show that a significant portion of previous Fun Run attendees already feel comfortable enough to participate immediately although in smaller groups. The answers also reflect a small growth in confidence looking forward to 3/6/12 months ahead - a great sign for the events industry.