According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), during the first quarter of 2022, the artistic, entertainment and recreation activities reported a growth of 36.2%. These, added to the line of household activities, contributed 1.14 percentage points as a whole to the variation of the total national GDP, which stood at 8.5%.
(Read: Productive change, the economic country that Petro dreams of).
Now, when disaggregating the category of artistic and entertainment activities, we find that the Dane places five important sub-branches. First, there are the activities of gambling and betting, which weighed 42% in this entire region; followed by sports and recreational activities (soccer games, amusement parks and social clubs) which took 10%.
“It is important to remember that the pandemic brought us an online gaming and betting practice that has had a very large growth in recent quarters. Particularly in the first quarter of 2022, gaming activities grew at a rate of 57%”, affirmed Juan Daniel Oviedo, general director of Dane.
Likewise, the region of Personal services (for example, everything related to wellness and hairdressing services) with a weight of 37% of the sector. Another category is everything related to creative and cultural activities (concerts and shows), which received approximately 3%. Finally, the activities generated by associations, guilds and cooperatives accounted for 8%.
Likewise, Oviedo pointed out that sports activities, in which amusement parks and soccer matches stand out, reported a significant growth of 44.8%, while cultural shows, concerts, events and fairs had an increase in their activity of 170.8% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same period of the previous year.
business look
Undoubtedly, one of the activities that has shown the most rapid growth in recent months has been concerts, with a wide range of singers, both national and international.
According to Gabriel García, CEO of Páramo Presenta, an events company, the return of the shows has not only been a “global phenomenon”, but also an important move in the country.
“The figures for the number of concerts held and sold out is a record in Colombia. And at least in our case most of them are working very well in the callsGarcia commented.
On the side of amusement parks, the Colombian Association of Attractions and Amusement Parks (Acolap) highlighted that businessmen in the sector had reported good growth in their sales so far this year, especially at Easter.
“The results of growth in sales, on average, were 20%, compared to what happened in Holy Week 2019. This is how figures were reached that are in the order of $22,000 million,” said the Acolap union.
Andrés Felipe Falla, general director of Corparques, a corporation that brings together the Mundo Aventura, Mundo Natural, Festivals and events brands, and the Arazá theme restaurant, stated that the Mundo Aventura park had received 631,000 visitors within the framework of its reactivation last year. , “registering a 58% increase in user consumption versus 2019.”
(Keep reading: The challenges of Petro and Rodolfo Hernández for the second round).
Other entertainment lines
Although cinemas and night entertainment (which includes bars and nightclubs) do not appear in Dane’s segmentation of cultural activities, according to Oviedo, director of the statistical entity, cinemas appear in the category of information and communications; while bars and nightclubs fall within the accommodation and food services sector.
“The film projection line had a growth of 302.3%, compared to the first quarter of 2021, where there were still restrictions. Likewise, accommodation and services reported a good behavior”, said Oviedo.
And it is that although the cinemas in the country show a good recovery compared to 2021, the businessmen of the sector point out that the figures still do not exceed those of 2019.
José María Ortega, director of operations at Cinépolis, specified that at the end of the first quarter the industry had achieved 50% of the attendance reported in 2019.
“The scenario is still complicated because although our customers are returning to theaters, Cinépolis registered a reach of 67%, attendance is still not what we expect. I believe that some sectors of the population have not yet returned to the cinema, either for fear of contagion or because they do not have films of interest to them because they are more selective in their decision-makingOrtega specified.
JOHANA LORDUY
