Analysis from S4labour shows that total hospitality industry sales were 79.4% down on last year from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. Drink was down 84.2% and food was down 64%. Given that households were prevented from mixing in hospitality venues, it is no surprise that bookings were cancelled and sales plummeted.
Individually, total figures for the individual days were as follows: Christmas Eve was down by 71.5%, Christmas Day was down by 78.5% and boxing day was down by 88.1%.
During the festive period, sites often close for at least one of the days, however this year with the recent Tier 4 introduction, most sites have been unable to open this year the majority of sites were closed; 53.3% of sites were closed on Christmas Eve, 33.6% of sites were closed on Christmas day and 65.2% on boxing day.
Richard Hartley, Chief Product Officer commented: “this unpredictable year has ended in very suppressed Christmas sales due to ever increasing COVID restrictions, and it’s not looking likely to change for a while yet.”
