The Olympics and Paralympics cost UK pubs, restaurants and hotels £55m in lost revenue, although the decline was lower than initially expected, according to new research from food service consultancy Horizons.
The £78m decline outside the Olympics village was mitigated by an addition £23m of sales in and around Olympics venues.
The net decline of £55m was significantly lower than the £75m estimated by Horizons when the Games were awarded to London in 2005. Horizons also pointed out that the overall impact was equivalent to less than 0.1% of total UK eating out expenditure this year.
The £78m decline is broken down as -£27m in quick service restaurants, -£26m in other restaurants, -£11m in pubs and -£14m in hotels.
Horizons said: “Overall, London itself was an enormous winner demonstrating its friendliness and ability to put on a really great show. Hospitality also put on a great show with thousands of volunteer gamesmakers trained and there with a smile to help all.
“The range and quality of British restaurant and pub food was a strong feature – and one, no doubt, that will attract more visitors in the years to come.
“The foodservice trade also showed how well and quickly it could rise to the challenge of change – with night time deliveries, additional security checks and an array of foreign languages to contend with just a few of the additional challenges.”
Horizons said other particular winners were operators of the concession restaurants and fast food places around the Olympic Park, and contract caterers that operated inside the fence in the Olympic Park, and at other Olympics locations such as Weymouth for sailing and Eton Dorney for rowing.”
Among the “notable losers” were restaurants in the West End, wholesalers serving these restaurants, food kiosks in Oxford Street, food-led pubs around the country, and “hotels which sat back and waited for the Olympics bonanza”.
Horizons added: “As the Olympics opened, central London became unusually quiet as locals heeded warning of transport chaos on the tubes and buses. In the end travel was hardly affected, and eating out activity by Londoners was almost up to normal August levels during the second week of the Games.
“However, overseas visitors were fewer than usual during the period of the Games - BAA traveller numbers were -2% down in August - and so their contribution to the normal London eating out scene was less than normal.
“Meanwhile inside the fence, McDonald’s served 55,000 customers on its busiest day in its 2 restaurants – and 13,000 in its athletes’ village site. Contractors such as Compass, and Aramark, did very brisk business not only with athletes, the media and the Olympic ‘family’, but also from the many concessions that they operated inside the fence. Their offers covered a wide range from healthy food options to Mexican, and Indian ethnic cuisines.”
