That’s according to CGA. which surveyed 1,988 consumers within Florida, Texas, California, Illinois and New York on their expectations, desires and how they plan to behave in the next two weeks.
Over the last two-week period, visitation is down slightly wave-on-wave for food-led (64%) and drink-led (37%) occasions. However, intent to visit for the next two weeks is static for food and increases to 41% for drink-led occasions, CGA said.
A quarter of On Premise visitors have been visiting venues less often than normal over the past two weeks (+11pp vs. December 2021), with this being driven principally by COVID-19 concerns. Seven out of 10 consumers surveyed, however, said the plan to visit a bar or restaurant in the next two weeks.
Forty-seven percent of On-Premise visitors said they expect to go to restaurants and/or bars more often than they did in 2021, compared to just 10% expecting they will do this less often.
Within the next 6 months, 31% of consumers expect their spending in bars and restaurants will increase.
Consumer confidence in visiting venues is set to increase, with 61% of consumers very confident in visiting small/intimate venues this year (+2pp versus in the next few weeks) and 43% confident in visiting experiential venues (+2pp versus in the next few weeks).
One in five consumers surveyed said they planned not to drink in bars and restaurants for Dry January. So far, two thirds of consumers taking part are sticking with it, with one in five now saying the expect to drink before January ends and 15% no longer taking part.
While traditional, made-to-order cocktails are still the preferred serve type for 52% of category drinkers, a third would prefer RTD or draft cocktails if COVID-19 cases remain high.
Mimosas (32%) were the most popular mixed drink consumed over the holiday period, followed by the festive favorites of Irish Coffee (27%), Eggnog (24%) and Hot Ciders (21%).
“While there is no doubt that it is still a challenging time for the On Premise, the average consumer is showing a lot of positivity around visitation and the channel has come a long way from where we were in Spring 2020, and even compared to this time last year,” Matthew Crompton, CGA Client Solutions Director, Americas, said. Sixty-one percent of consumers are comfortable visiting the on-premise venues as they normally would and 34% expect their spend to increase in the next 12 months, meaning there’s lots to play for.”