Background information

The events sector is one of the sectors that has been struck the hardest in Belgium. Most larger events have been abolished for a large part of the pandemic. If not they were only allowed to take place under stringent safety precautions, to the extent that for several events organisers this would make the event loss making. As the situation changed significantly in a short period of time and measures sometimes were relaxed or made more strict, it was difficult for events organisers to have an indication of what was allowed in the future. Because of this, a lot of large events have been cancelled throughout the pandemic, sometimes quite short before the event would have taken place and even several times in a row. To support events organisers and their employees, the Flemish government has decided to provide financial support if tickets needed to rebooked.

Content of measure

The premium is intended for companies in the events sector that have made rebookings due to the corona measures in place at the time if they are able to actually prove this. The measure applies specifically to companies that are active within the broad NACE sections of art, entertainment and recreation as well as organizers of fairs and congresses or a specialized ticketing company.

Only primary rebookings, which are rebookings that were rescheduled, postponed or refunded for the first time as a result of the coronavirus measures, are eligible. All subsequent rebookings of the same event are not eligible.

Submission of primary rebookings of at least 10,000 tickets for eligible events is necessary to submit a valid aid application. Each company with eligible rebookings will receive an aid amount of up to €2 per rebooking.

Use of measure

The measure is new and no information is therefore available yet.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Local / regional government	Regional funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

The involvement of the social partners is not known.

Views and reactions

No public statements or opinions have been released yet, but some sectoral organisations within the events sector promote the measure and provide information on it to their members.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 04 October 2021: Vlaio: Corona Rebooking premium (www.vlaio.be)