YORK ranks among the top cities spending the most in pubs during the first week after the reopening of indoor dining.

Since May 17 pubs, restaurants and cafes across the UK have been able to serve customers indoors. Card payments provider, Dojo, analysed their transaction data during the first week of trading to find out how much sales have increased over the first week of pubs and restaurants fully reopening and York ranked 13th in the country for pub spend and 40th for spending in city restaurants with a 59% increase on the week prior.

Stoke on Trent topped the list for restaurant spending with a huge 195% week on week increase. 

Here's the table for pub spend rankings showing the rank, the city and the week on week increase:

1 Exeter 114.3%

2 Plymouth 108.6%

3 Canterbury 100.7%

4 Stoke on Trent 94.4%

5 Hull 91.5%

6 Blackburn 85.6%

7 Carlisle 74.7%

8 Stockport 74.7%

9 Coventry 73.8%

10 Truro 70.0%

11 Torquay 68.5%

12 Colchester 65.3%

13 York 64.2%

14 Doncaster 63.8%

15 Bournemouth 63.8%

16 Lancaster 61.3%

17 Birmingham 60.3%

18 Nottingham 58.8%

19 Peterborough 58.3%

20 Liverpool 52.0%

Dojo’s data revealed that the new lifted restrictions have allowed 29% more pubs to trade over the past two weeks compared to when outdoor dining was the only option. The pub data also revealed that the average spend increased by 8%, and spending was also 20% higher than an average week in July 2020. It looks like Brits are truly savouring every pint.

Jon Knott, Head of Customer Insights at Dojo said: “After over a year of lockdowns and restrictions, it is no wonder that we’re eager to get back to normality, and for some of us, this includes going out for dinner at the local restaurant. On May 17 23% more restaurants were able to trade compared to the previous week. These new relaxed restrictions also meant that 67% more pubs were also able to trade.

“Indoor hospitality's return has allowed a number of small businesses to reopen their doors, after many have been excluded from the easing of restrictions since April 12th. Restaurants have seen a 49% increase in sales since indoor dining reopened with a marked increase in the average order value (+33%).

“As the English summer approaches, pub-goers are able to flip between indoor and outdoor seating so restaurants and pubs are trying to limit customer contact points where possible. This means taking secure contactless, Apple and Google Pay payments as opposed to cash.

“Dojo can provide the ideal solution for this as our card machines have both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G SIM connectivity which enables hospitality staff to take reliable and secure payments from customers outdoors, without a Wi-Fi connection.

“That means pubs and restaurants that use our services would no longer need to worry about having mobile SIM connectivity and can continue to trade even if their Wi-Fi fails. It’s great to see the hospitality industry picking back up and we hope to see small businesses flourish throughout the summer months.”