Bristol city centre’s economy sees positive signs of recovery in first half of 2022

Bristol’s city centre businesses are experiencing strong signs of recovery revealed in new data released by three of Bristol’s central Business Improvement Districts (BID), which identifies increased spend, footfall and a boost to the night-time economy across the first six months of 2022.

The new research, which has been commissioned, analysed and released by Bristol City Centre BID, Redcliffe & Temple BID and Broadmead BID, which has confirmed a total ‘in premises’ Visa spend of £274M across businesses in the BS1, BS2 and BS8 areas for the first half of the year, from 1 January – 30 June 2022.

Across the two quarters, the total in premises Visa spend is £131.1 million in Q1 and £142.7million in Q2, representing a 9% rise from one quarter to the next and a significant increase of 16% when comparing it to the same trading period in 2021.

The Visa spend data is sourced from companies such as Virgin Media O2 and Visa, giving a comprehensive, yet privacy-focused understanding of how many people are visiting the city, their age groups, origin postcodes of visitors and their spend in the city centre. It allows analysis of different merchant category groups for each quarter and then comparison for each, quarter by quarter.

This analysis enables the BIDs to understand how people are choosing to shop, eat, drink and experience the city centre and its businesses, with the ability to react to trends and support businesses through key times of the year. Initiatives from the BIDs, including the recent introduction of the Love Bristol Gift Card scheme supports and boosts the city centre economy by encouraging local spend.  Free to attend events and activities are also proving to be significantly important in terms of high street recovery as they drive footfall and spend into city centre businesses supporting economic growth. 

Spend by sector

Most business sectors in Bristol’s city centre have seen an increase in premises spend from Q1 to Q2 of this year, with the most significant increases experienced by hotels, clothing and shoes, and general retail & high street.

Sector	Q1 spend	Q2 spend	% increase / decrease Q1 vs Q2
Restaurants, pubs and clubs	£37million	£39million	7% increase
Clothing	£20million	£26million	33% increase
Supermarkets	£23million	£17million	26% decrease
General retail & high street	£11million	£14million	30% increase
Hotels & accommodation	£6million	£9million	43% increase

Night-time economy boost in first half of 2022

The night-time economy sector (businesses operating between 6pm and 6am) has seen a significant boost across the first half of 2022 with a total spend of £39.5million across the six months. The night-time economy experienced a very positive start to the year with £19million spend in Q1, with a key driver for this increase being the return of Bristol Light Festival, which brought an additional £3.4m revenue to city centre businesses and 170,000 visitors to the event across its duration.

In Q2, restaurants, bars and clubs experienced an 8% increase in spend as a whole, with £20.5million spend reported specifically in the city centre between 6pm and 6am.

Online and international spend both positive

The research shows that online Visa spend in businesses across BS1, BS2 and BS8, benefited from an online sales of £161million in Q1 of this year, and a further £146million in Q2, a total of £307million for the first half of the year. There was a decrease of 10% between the two quarters, however in correlation with the increase of in premises spend, this shows the movement of consumers choosing to shop in store rather than online.

International spend is also having a huge impact on Bristol’s city centre economy and recovery, a total of £53.4million across the first six months of the year, with visitors from USA accounting for the highest international spend in the city.

Steve Bluff, Head of Redcliffe & Temple BID commented; “In Q1, the city centre economy started to show signs of recovery, with more people wanting to visit and spend leisure time in the city, we started on a post-pandemic upward trajectory. Whilst we are seeing reassuring signs of recovery and quarterly increased spend in the city, these is still more work to be done.

“We know that when comparing Q2 of this year to Q2 2019, there is a difference and shortfall of over £50million in spend, if the city is to fully rebound and return to the levels seen before the pandemic then businesses need continued support through local, international, and online spend.”

Vicky Lee, Head of Bristol City Centre BID continued; “This data shows that in Q1, we were heading in the right direction for a more prosperous year for our city’s businesses, particularly retail and hospitality that were hit hard by the pandemic. As we headed into Q2, the cost of living and inflation has had an impact on businesses and how they operate, but thankfully the data so far shows that these concerns have not affected consumer spend in the city centre.

“Whilst it is likely that consumer’s disposable income may have reduced, the importance of smaller ‘pick me up’ purchases and experiences such as shopping, meals out with friends and family and a night out in the city, are still being high on people’s agenda.

“We will be using this data to understand and monitor the spend trends in the city centre, to ensure we can continue to support businesses in the second half of the year. We need to ensure both day and night-time economies are supported, encouraging workers back to their offices will be a key driver for increased midweek, daytime spend, along with autumn and winter events to attract visitors into the city.”

Working with Movement Insights, a data insights company, the BIDs plan to analyse quarterly data for the city centre business economy to gather and compare the city’s economic progress, enabling the BIDs to further support businesses as they navigate the road to recovery.