Alternative Modes of Arts Participation Survey Highlights – Dance

Hong Kong Arts Development Council commissioned a research consultancy to study the public perceptions of and behaviours on alternative modes of arts participation during COVID-19, in particular being the audience via alternative channels such as social media, paid video-on-demand platforms, and TV / radio broadcast. An online survey was conducted in January 2021 on a random sample of 1,500 Hong Kong citizens aged 16-64. Full report of the survey has been published here. The following is a summary of findings on the Dance section.

1	Changes in Overall Participation Incidence
	1.1	Participation in Dance programmes dropped from 13% in 2018-2019 to 9% during COVID-19. (See the left of the chart below)
	1.2	Of the 1,500 respondents, 48% had at some point participated in Dance programmes as audience. 5% of the respondents were Retaining Participants, who were not influenced by COVID-19 and had participated in all time periods. (See the right of the chart below)
	1.3	Despite 7% of the respondents having lapsed since the COVID-19 outbreak, 3% resumed participation in Dance programmes during the epidemic. (See the right of the chart below)
	1.4	From the two charts below, it could be seen that during COVID-19, respondents aged 25-34 (14% were Dance programme audience) and married persons having children under the age of 18 (12% were Dance programme audience) were more active in watching Dance programmes or participating in other kinds of activities related to Dance.
	1.5	In addition, more women (11%) participated in Dance programmes as audience than men (7%) did. From the survey findings, among those who had not attended any Dance programmes in the respective periods in 2018-2019 and during COVID-19, 41% and 36% of male respondents expressed no interest in the art form, whereas the corresponding percentages for female non-participants were 31% and 25% respectively.
2	Physical-mode and Alternative-mode Participation and Future Potential
	2.1	The percentage of audience participation in Dance programmes via alternative modes grew from 68% in 2018-2019 to 93% during COVID-19. The main channels were social media platforms, TV/radio broadcast and paid video-on-demand platforms. (See the right of the chart below)
	2.2	Compared to physical-mode participation before the epidemic, alternative-mode participation in Dance programmes during COVID-19 was more frequent. (From the left of the chart below, in 2018-2019, 25% of physical-mode participants participated 3 times or more on average per year; whereas during COVID-19, 35% of alternative-mode participants participated 3 times or more.)
	2.3	During COVID-19, 23% of participants were willing to pay for alternative-mode Dance programmes. (See the left of the chart below)
	2.4	Participation rate in non-local Dance programmes during COVID-19 was also higher. (58%, see the left of the chart below)
	2.5	52% of all respondents expressed interest in watching Dance programmes at post-COVID-19 period, more than triple the actual participation incidence (16%) in Jan 2018 - Jan 2021. The interest growth was mainly towards physical-mode Dance programmes (from 8% to 34%, see the chart below).
3	Potential Participants
	3.1	Over 50% of the respondents expressed interest in watching Dance programmes at post-COVID-19 period. From the chart below, it could be seen that the sample of potential participants (the right column) and that of Dance programme audience from Jan 2018 to Jan 2021 (the middle column) were both skewed towards women, people aged 25-34 and married persons having children under the age of 18. They generally had higher educational attainment and household income. (See the chart below)
	3.2	Compared to men, women were more interested in watching Dance programmes at post-COVID-19 period, and they showed a clear preference for physical attendance at such programmes (see the chart below). It was found that 64% of potential physical-mode participants were female.
	3.3	While married persons having children under the age of 18 were more interested in attending Dance programmes in person, those who would consider alternative-mode participation were willing to pay more for alternative-mode Dance programmes. (See the chart below)
	3.4	More than 80% of potential participants at post-COVID-19 period did not participate in Dance programmes at the moment (i.e. they were Lapsed Participants or Non-participants). Among those Lapsed Participants during COVID-19 who expressed interest in physical-mode participation at post-COVID-19 period, 35% did not participate in any Dance programmes in 2018-2019 due to high ticket price (see the chart below). Therefore, to attract them to attending physical Dance programmes again, more focus on the pricing strategies and marketing approaches would be necessary.
Click here to download the full analysis on the Dance section.