Support for Covid-19 safety measures is starting to ebb
April 2022
Cultural Participation MonitorWave 6 | Spring 2022
This research is from The Audience Agency's nationwide longitudinal (ongoing) panel survey of changing views about participating in creative and cultural activities through the recent and ongoing crises, and beyond, the Cultural Participation Monitor.
Themes
Safety measures are rated as less important than they have been previously, but desire for them continues, with half of audiences still saying that they would not attend if precautions were removed all together.
Most people still say safety measures are important but, as the chart below shows, this has dropped quite significantly since November.
- Support for only those with vaccination or test records attending has dropped the most.
- As expected, due to their increased risk from Covid-19, the level of importance placed on measures increases with age group.
- Most people also rate these measures as important Outdoors but in lower proportions.
Nearly half of people surveyed still said that if cultural organisations remove all Covid-19-related safety measures they would be less confident in attending.
- Half also said organisations could make visiting more Covid-19 safe which is unchanged from November’s analysis.
- Disabled people are more likely to say their removal of all measures reduced confidence, driven by those with mobility/breathing issues.
- Half of people surveyed disagreed that the current COVID-19 safety measures were too extreme in relation to risk, with the rest split between neutral and agree, proportions unchanged from November.
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Willingness to attend events, especially outdoors, is rising
Overall there is much increased willingness to attend events and optimism about future attendance, though some groups continue to be especially concerned, with disabled people less likely to be willing or able to attend.
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Nearly half of people engaged with arts and culture digitally during the pandemic
Nearly half of people say that they engaged with arts and culture online in some form during the pandemic, weighted towards audiences who are younger, typically high cultural engagers anyway, or disabled.
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The cost-of-living crisis is starting to impact people's willingness or ability to spend on arts and culture
The cost of living crisis is emerging as a predictable barrier to engagement, and is particularly likely to affect frequency of attendance (more than spend per attendance - though increased prices would act as a further deterrent).
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Working from home is here to stay
Working from home is still prevalent, preferred and expected to continue in to some degree for most, which is likely a contributor to the widespread intention to attend more locally in future than before the pandemic.
