One in five UK adults, who celebrate Christmas, have already started planning for the festive season, according to a new consumer poll from research consultancy KAM.
Seven per cent say they’ve already made a reservation for a pub or restaurant, while 17% have already invited people to their houses to celebrate.
The research captures consumers’ current intentions for Christmas 2021, assuming that restrictions remain lifted. Results look positive for hospitality with one in three adults intending to put more effort into celebrating Christmas this year, compared with a normal, pre-Covid Christmas.
Katy Moses, managing director of KAM, said: “Christmas 2020 was a relative wash-out for most people, so it’s no huge surprise that so many Brits are keen to make this year an even bigger celebration than normal. This is likely to mean that people will be spending more and planning earlier, with an impressive 3.3 million saying they’ve already made
reservations for the festive period. It may well actually be the season to be jolly this year.”
KAM found that footfall on Christmas Day itself looks set to return to pre-covid levels with one in ten intending to visit a pub or restaurant — this matches the intention level in 2019. The same can be said of New Year’s Eve, with 22% of consumers saying they intend to visit a pub or restaurant.
Based on these current intentions, and assuming restrictions remain lifted, KAM predicts a net increase in people visiting restaurants this festive period compared with normal ‘pre-covid’ times — 27% intend to go to restaurants more often over Christmas compared with 20% who say less often.
The research found that pubs, however, could see a very small decline overall compared with pre-covid levels. Twenty per cent of consumers said they intend to visit pubs more often compared with 26% who say less often. The decline is driven by the over-55-year-olds. However, even these results suggest overall footfall at pubs should be back up close to pre-covid levels based on current intentions.
Katy added: “The research shows that UK consumers are currently feeling excited about this Christmas, and eating and drinking out will play as big a part in their celebrations as it did pre-covid. Obviously, we’ve learnt the hard way that a lot can change between now and Christmas, but, assuming the current restrictions don’t change, it’s looking to be a very Merry Christmas for hospitality this year.”
