Swansea’s tasty menu of dining out options is underpinning the economic success of the area, with latest figures showing visitors are increasingly opting to visit the City Centre to eat out.
Swansea’s Location Overview Report for July to September 2019, produced for Swansea BID (Business Improvement District), highlights the fact that 15.73 percent of visitors to the City Centre come in to enjoy its restaurant options, with Swansea’s three cinemas also pulling in a high percentage of visitors – 13.26 percent go to see a film while they are in the heart of Swansea. This figure is closely followed by the popularity of Swansea’s grocery shopping options, at 13.93 percent for the same period.
The statistics also show that visitors spend an average of 1.12:35 hours in the City Centre, travelling more than 21 miles on average to get there.
Russell Greenslade, Chief Executive of Swansea BID, said: “These latest statistics about Swansea City Centre visits are revealing in many ways, not least because they confirm the value of our very vibrant food and beverage and night time business to the City Centre’s overall success.
“The BID area continues to be an attractive place to set up for businesses of all kinds, and particularly for night time, food and entertainment sites. As we speak, a new restaurant brand, El Fuego, is preparing to open in Princess Way, Bunkers crazy golf bar, and Brewdog are also set to open imminently. The City Centre has become the place to be for food and entertainment, with its night-time offering boosted by Swansea’s Purple Flag accreditation and by the fact that so many of our night time venues are signed up to the Best Bar None scheme – both hallmarks of a safe and enjoyable night time destination.
“We also have an effective mix of big-name grocery stores in the BID area, including Lidl, Iceland, Tesco, Sainsburys an M&S, alongside places where shoppers can find specialist foods, like Swansea Market. This balanced mix is a healthy one for the long-term sustainability of our City Centre.
“It is interesting to have confirmed that a high proportion of visitors to Swansea City Centre come here from more than 21 miles away – this takes in areas beyond Pontardawe and Gorseinon and beyond shopping sites like Park Trostre. Swansea City Centre also scores highly on the Location Overview report for the quality of our assets – our Asset Ranking is 67.7 percent. This score is calculated against 10 exacting measures, including customer dwell time and frequency of visits, brand provision, competitor activity and audience share. Swansea City Centre is also ranked A for Provision and One for Engagement – the highest scores available. Our dwell time is slightly better than the national average dwell time, across the UK. Swansea BID, our hard-working businesses, and all of our partners are working hard to ensure Swansea City Centre is as vibrant as it can be, and I would encourage shoppers and visitors to keep supporting the area and to come into the City Centre to enjoy what it has to offer.”
