Return to Fun Runs survey results

Image credit: Sydney Running Festival | By Register Now

Returning to Fun Run Events

At the beginning of June Register Now conducted a “Return to Fun Runs during COVID-19” survey to understand the general sentiment of the Australian and New Zealand running community.

Topics around comfortability of attendance and general participation numbers were assessed to give event organisers some understanding around consumer confidence as restrictions slowly ease.

Respondents were asked during the period 1 June to 8 June 2020 to indicate their comfortability around Fun Run event participation. They were asked how comfortable they would be participating in events now, in 3 months time (September) and in 2021.

How data was collected

Register Now contacted current Clients that have held a running event in 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 and New Zealand running community across social media (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn).

2,888 respondents participated in the survey, the results were skewed towards an Australian audience with New Zealand results only representing 2.1% of the respondents. As this is not a significant sample size, if you are interested in the NZ data please contact us directly.

All data:

• 86.5% of respondents would feel comfortable participating in a Fun Run this year
• 65.76% of this group would feel comfortable participating in an event this weekend up to 500 participants
• 10% of this group would be comfortable participating in an event this weekend with 20,000 participants or more
• By September 92.03% of this group would feel comfortable participating in a Fun Run with up to 500 participants
• Comparatively 29% of participants would feel comfortable in a Fun Run with 10,000+ participants by September
• Of the respondents not comfortable participating this year 82.6% of respondents would feel comfortable participating in an event next year with up to 500 participants.

Respondents were asked to indicate which of the following controls would make them feel more comfortable, the top 5 were:

• Social distancing guidelines / policies (60.8%)
• Limiting Participant Numbers (57.85%)
• Refund & deferment policy (54.4%)
• Hand sanitiser stations (52.19%)
• Temperature Checks on Arrival (45.31%)

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 ease geographically.

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 growing confidence level looking forward to 3/6/12 months ahead - a great sign for the events industry.

There is no doubt that new protocols around the operations of events will be required in the ‘new normal’ and it appears that the common concepts being discussed by the industry are resonating with the consumers.