Dramatic Rise in Mobile Restaurant Bookings
New figures reveal that UK diners are creating a ‘fast dining’ culture with two in five (41%) diners now booking restaurants through tablets or mobiles.
This figure is up a staggering 34% from 2012, when the figure stood at just 7%.
The research – by restaurant booking service, Bookatable – also reveals that mobile devices are driving a new after work fast dining culture, with restaurant searches on mobile and tablet spiking at 7.07pm as post work hunger pangs kick in. Tech savvy diners spend an average of 11 minutes hunting for a venue before booking and, despite their spontaneous habits, mobile and tablet diners are revealed to be thriftier than their desktop booking counterparts.
Desktop diners were found to spend up to 37% more, parting with an average
of £37.78 per person compared to the £27.63 bill which ‘fast diners’ rack up. Women were found to be leading the rise of the mobile trend, accounting for 61% of bookings from smart devices.
Joe Steele, CEO, Bookatable, commented: “This significant increase in restaurant booking through smartphone and tablet devices indicates a major shift in the marketplace and shows that consumers are no longer making these kinds of decisions from a static position. Indeed, as people increasingly rely
on connected devices, the more they are using them to purchase products and make reservations on the move.
It is simply more convenient for diners and in a world of instant gratification we expect no less from our restaurant booking experiences.”
NEW WEBSITE RAISING A GLASS TO BRITISH PUBS
A website toasting all that is great about British pubs has been launched.
The British Beer & Pub Association and pubs minister Brandon Lewis MP officially launched the Pubs are GREAT website, which aims to connect people withquality public houses.
The website, developed in conjunction with Inapub, is a new feature of the successful and high profile GREAT Britain initiative, led by the Number 10 team,
Visit Britain and UKTI.
Visiting a pub is the third most popular activity for overseas visitors, with four out of ten heading to a pub at some point during their stay. With this in mind, the website has been designed to help visitors find a quality pub close to the area or attraction they are visiting.
The new service covers a whole range of visitor attractions under the headlines: Heritage, Culture, Natural Beauty, Sport and Music and will help visitors pinpoint the GREATest pub nearby.
The GREAT campaign promotes Britain abroad as a GREAT place in which to invest, to study and visit, highlighting all that is best about the UK. This single campaign promotes Great Britain under a common banner, so that Britain speaks with one voice.
Joss Croft, marketing director at VisitBritain, said:“Pubs are Britain’s welcome mat to the world and play a key role in attracting visitors as part of our culture
and heritage offering. Our traditional and much-loved pubs offer some of the warmest British welcomes, as well as excellent value and quality food options.
The Pubs are GREAT digital campaign captures the best of what is familiar about the UK, but will also surprise people and encourage them to think differently about modern Britain.”
The North/South Divide
Consumers in London and the South East are most loyal to branded chains, whereas northerners and Scots prefer independents.
These findings, which highlight the specific peculiarities of consumers within London in relation to the rest of the UK, are taken from Allegra’s recent Restaurant report, which covers fast food, pub restaurants and casual dining chains.
London has the greatest percentage of consumers who prefer brands to independents, with 17% of Londoners opting for brands compared with the national average of 10%. This compares with 57% of Scottish people preferring independents – 10% higher than the national average of 47%. And visits to independents are greatest in the North East with 64% of consumers regularly visiting independents compared with a national average of 54%.
The UK Restaurant Market report 2014 shows that Londoners dine out more frequently than any other region – 51% of Londoners eat out at least once a week compared with the national average of 35%, and this, in part, explains brands’ popularity in London. Whilst London is certainly a bubble when
it comes to the Eating Out market in total, branded restaurants cater well to regular diners, particularly weekday diners, as they provide reliability, good value and convenience.
Londoners are also increasing their visits to higher ticket establishments, unlike Scottish consumers who have increased their visits to low ticket places. Scottish
consumers also spend most cautiously when eating out.
This suggests a significant divide in consumer confidence and willingness to spend between the UK’s North and South. Spend on eating out is also low in the West. The highest percentage to eat out less frequently over the last 12 months
is among the Welsh and they are also the most driven to return to a new restaurant if it was good value for money. Consumers in the West Midlands and the South West both report to feel unconfident about their future income levels.
