Where is the UK’s Christmas Party Hotspot?

6th December 2021

The 2021 Christmas Party season in well and truly is full swing. Whilst last year, the GMAP team took to our screens and had a Christmas Party over Teams that consisted of Wine & Cheese by Friends of Ham, a Leeds favourite, and a virtual magician. This year, we were able to celebrate together in person in our home city of Leeds in true GMAP fashion, with a Christmas meal, followed by bowling at the Roxy Lanes, and inevitably turning to the night out epicentre of Leeds, Call Lane.

Covid Retail Shopping Behaviours using Footfall Data

It’s safe to say that, if GMAP’s Christmas Party is anything to go by, then the Christmas Party season very much favours the Food & Beverage locations, with some Competitive Socialising to satisfy the more competitive members of the team. In response to this, we have examined our LeisureVision location data to look at where could be the Christmas Party hotspots in the UK. 

To do this we used our recently launched LeisureVision product. The launch of LeisureVision was in recognition of how leisure-based consumption is increasingly prevalent portion of consumer spending, read our blog Launching LeisureVision to find out more. LeisureVision consists of over 250,000+ leisure location data points in the UK within the Food & Beverage (F&B), Entertainment, Competitive Socialising and Sport & Fitness sectors:

Food & Beverage (F&B)

Entertainment

Theatre, Cinema, Stadium, Gambling, Bingo, etc.

Competitive Socialising

Bowling, Crazy Golf, Escape Room, Trampolining, etc.

Sport & Fitness

Covid Queues at Birstall Shopping Park IKEA
The map above shows the top 10 Food & Beverage hotspots in the UK. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Westminster is the top Food & Beverage Destination in the UK, followed by Leeds, Birmingham, and Edinburgh, which all have over 2,000 Food & Beverage locations. Below we have looked at this by three of the key categories of locations attended on Christmas parties: Bars, Nightclubs and Restaurants.
Covid Queues at Birstall Shopping Park IKEA
Covid Queues at Birstall Shopping Park IKEA
Covid Queues at Birstall Shopping Park IKEA
Westminster, Manchester and Leeds have the highest density of Bars in the UK. By far, Birmingham is the Nightclub hotspot in the UK, followed by Westminster and Bristol. Westminster, once again had the highest number of Restaurants, followed by Edinburgh and Birmingham. 

Taking into account the total number of Nightclub, Bar and Restaurant locations concludes that, if every Christmas Party is as food and alcohol driven as GMAP’s typical celebration, Westminster is the top Christmas Party destination followed by Edinburgh, Birmingham, Camden and Leeds.  
Covid Queues at Birstall Shopping Park IKEA
If you are like some of our game-loving GMAPers, the highlight of the Christmas Party is always something that involves the opportunity to win. The Competitive Socialising hotspots are less London centric. Birmingham is the ultimate destination of choice for Competitive Socialising, followed by Edinburgh and Oxford.  
Covid Queues at Birstall Shopping Park IKEA
LeisureVision Points is a competitively price dataset of over 250,000+ leisure locations across the UK. Points is a comprehensive dataset of locations across 4 product types including Food & Beverage (F&B), Entertainment, Competitive Socialising and Sport & Fitness. Each Point is also assigned to one of over 100+ categories. The attributes associated with each point are: Name, Brand, Location, Product & Category.
When combining the Competitive Socialising locations, to the total number of Nightclubs, Bars and Restaurants, Westminster remains the top Christmas Party destination, followed by Edinburgh, Birmingham, Camden and Leeds. 

Albeit virtually, in your homes, or in person, we hope you enjoy the Christmas Party season. This is just a brief introduction into some of the insights captured by LeisureVision, to find out more please get in touch or visit our LeisureVision webpage for more information.