City centres “building back” from COVID as hospitality sales rise
However, ongoing challenges in London remain.
Hospitality sectors in major British cities are “recovering their vibrancy” as COVID restrictions wind down.
CGA and Wireless Social’s latest ‘Top Cities: Vibrancy Ranking’ report, which combines sales and device log-in data to assess the performance of Britain’s ten most populous cities over the four weeks to 12 February 2022, revealed Bristol being the “most vibrant” of the 10 cities, with eating-out and drinking-out sales in modest growth from pre-COVID levels and check-in numbers improving.
Sales were also up in Manchester, lifting the city from ninth place in the last report to second. Glasgow notched third place whilst Sheffield moved up four places to fourth.
Across the ten cities monitored, sales were 3% down on the same period in 2019, an improvement on the 10% shortfall in the previous four weeks.
However, with inflation running high, the companies said sales are “substantially lower than 2019 levels in real terms,” explaining that improvement may be due to greater spending per head rather than increases in visits since check-in numbers are flat compared to the previous period.
London remains in bottom place for the second time in a row, with sales and check-ins 11% and 38% down on pre-COVID levels, respectively.
Despite both figures being improvements on the previous four weeks, CGA and Wireless Social suggest that workers have been slow to return to the capital, and the shortfall of tourists has reduced sales further.
“After two very difficult years for Britain’s city centres, our report is proof of their growing vibrancy as COVID restrictions ease. Positive trends in Bristol, Manchester and elsewhere raise hopes that sales and footfall may soon return to pre-pandemic norms,” CGA’s client director Chris Jeffrey said.
“However, while many consumers are making up for lost time in pubs, bars and restaurants, others remain cautious about spending as inflation mounts, and trading in London remains particularly challenging. Recovery is going to be fragile, and achieving real-terms growth will be tough amid high inflation. But it is already clear that hospitality will be pivotal to the economic revival of Britain’s cities in 2022.”
Julian Ross, founder and CEO of Wireless Social, added: “It’s really encouraging to see activity is on the rise for hospitality across UK cities, after what has been an unprecedented two years. However, sector businesses still face mounting economic challenges, with the impending rises in VAT, energy bills and inflation on the horizon. This is why we fully support UKHospitality’s ongoing campaign to ensure the VAT rate is kept at 12.5% and the planned increase to 20% is scrapped. Measures like these are needed to ensure sales and footfall continue to climb, which is vitally important to our industry’s recovery.”
