Spending up in the city centre over Christmas 2017

We saw increases in several of the areas we measure over the Christmas period last year. Consumer spending, transactions and pedestrian counts were all up compared to the previous year.

Spending was up 5.3% to $235.3m over the period from 20 November - 31 December 2017, with the average transaction value over the period up 4.3% to $51.70.

Transactions were also up over the same period, with a 0.9% increase to 4.55m transactions made. With a greater percentage increase in spending compared to transaction numbers, we can see that consumers were spending more in each transaction; likely purchasing higher value products.

There were more people out and about in the city over Christmas too, with our pedestrian counts showing that 3.7% more people were walking around in December 2017 compared to December 2016.

To encourage the continued success of city centre businesses over this key period for retail and hospitality spending, each year we run a marketing campaign highlighting the city centre Christmas experience and install decorations in key locations. Take a look at some of the event and decoration highlights here and watch one of the videos we made below.