Festivities boosts hospitality in Britain’s top cities

Six of the 10 cities saw sales beat the six-week period three years ago.

Pubs, restaurants, and bars in Britain recorded more wireless log-ins than they did in the equivalent period in 2019 for the first time—a strong indicator that consumer visits are returning to pre-COVID levels, according to the Top Cities report by CGA by Nielsen revealed.

Six of the 10 cities saw sales beat the six-week period three years ago, following two festive seasons when hospitality was hit hard by restrictions and consumers’ concerns.

The ‘Top Cities’ report combines sales data from CGA by NielsenIQ with check-in data from Wireless Social to produce a ‘vibrancy’ ranking of the 10 cities

Glasgow tops the list ahead of Birmingham and Manchester, after increasing both sales and check-ins in 2019. It previously held the second position last year.

It is the fourth time in a row that these cities have shared the top three spots. CGA’s separate Hospitality Market Monitor with AlixPartners indicates that central Glasgow and Birmingham both now have more than 6%  (-6.2% and -7.1% respectively) fewer licensed premises than they did in December 2021, the highest year-on-year closure rate out of the top cities, suggesting that reduced competition between pubs, bars and restaurants may be helping to grow sales in these areas for managed operators.

Meanwhile,  London is bottom for the fifth successive period, as the return of sales and footfall after COVID continues to lag other cities, despite steady improvement over 2022.

Britain’s 10 biggest cities, ranked by vibrancy are:

1. Glasgow 
2. Birmingham 
3. Manchester 
4. Leicester 
5. Edinburgh 
6. Bristol 
7. Sheffield 
8. Liverpool 
9. Leeds 
10. London