YORK has lost £11.9 million through the cancellation of its Christmas market, according to an analysis.

A spokesman for print solution specialists 'Where The Trade Buys' says it has analysed ten of the most popular Christmas markets across the UK to calculate how much it has cost each region in lost revenue.

"By combining visitor numbers with the average spend per per person they were able to work out how much each city will lose," he said.

"And it has been calculated that the UK will lose around £882,300,000 from the 10 most popular markets, with Manchester being the hardest hit city in the UK."

He said the calculation was based on the presumption that each singular visitor buys a minimum of one sweet snack, one savoury snack, two drinks, and pays to go ice skating, at a cost of £34 per head.

The analysis shows that York lost less than Bath, which lost an estimated £13,600,000, but more than Lincoln, which lost £8.5 million, while Manchester lost an estimated £306 million.

The Press reported earlier this month that festive shoppers spent almost £150 million in York last year.

Andrew Lowson, of the York BID, said data from Visa showed £146m was spent in the city centre in the build-up to Christmas 2019, of which £59m came from visitors who had travelled from at least 50km away.