Left At The Altar For The Moment
According to a new study released by Hellosafe.ca, in 2020, the estimated financial loss to the wedding industry is $780,218,850.
In fact, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many fiancés have cancelled or postponed their wedding originally planned for 2020.
The province’s wedding industry also lost a lot of its turnover during 2020 – compared to 2019 — due to the impossibility of organizing wedding celebrations with government restrictions taken to stop the pandemic.
This corresponds to a $780 million fall in revenues for the wedding industry in Ontario in 2020, representing an annual 39.99% drop overall across the province.
Before the start of the pandemic, the numbers for February 2020 were rather encouraging for the wedding industry, with a global turnover increasing by 39.89% in comparison to the same month in 2019, meaning a $27,771,350 net gain in turnover for this month only.
However, the opposite occurs, starting in March 2020, with a strong decrease of the wedding industry’s turnover with the spike of the pandemic. Indeed, April registers a big decrease, with a turnover declining by 80.84% in comparison to 2019 – which corresponds to the first spike
The same occurs at the end of the year, with a dramatic decline in the Ontarian wedding industry’s turnover during the 3 last months of the year, corresponding to the second wave of the pandemic (down 86.27% in December and representing a $100.4 million loss in revenue).
The turnover lost by the wedding industry is highly related to the fact that a lot of celebrations couldn’t take place in 2020. Indeed, either the wedding was cancelled or postponed to 2021 (or even 2022).
Looking ahead, the study reports that 2021 is also likely to be a complicated year, with the COVID-19 pandemic expected to further complicate the daily lives of Ontarians for several months.
In fact, even if the number of weddings should increase by 21.8% in 2021 compared to 2020 (8,666 more weddings to be celebrated), many couples will still prefer to postpone their celebration, despite a slight catch-up effect.
On the other hand, 2022 should be the year of possibilities for the wedding industry. In fact, with the vaccine strategy deployed in the province, the summer of 2022 should be the year of rebirth for the wedding industry in Ontario. With a strong carry-over effect of the weddings cancelled in 2020 and 2021 expected, more than 70,500 weddings could be celebrated that year in Ontario.
Thus, in 2022, the Ontario wedding industry could generate record sales of over $2 billion.
For more, go to www.Hellosafe.ca .
