Liverpool One gets record Eurovision boost

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
May 18, 2023

The result might not have been a good one for the UK’s entrant at last weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest (second to last), but Liverpool, which staged the event on behalf of Ukraine, enjoyed record 2023 footfall and sales at its key shopping mall.

Liverpool One, which staged week-long festivities to coincide with the contest, has revealed the full extent of Eurovision’s positive impact on the mall, operated by Grosvenor.

For the week (7-13 May), which included Eurovision’s two semi-finals and the final, footfall in Liverpool One exceeded the predicted uplift (25%), being 31.5% ahead of the same week in 2022. This compares to a 5.7% increase for the UK as a whole.

Footfall for the entire Eurovision period (5-14 May) was up 17.3% against the same period last year, with the mall welcoming 680,000 visits.

Grosvenor said the influx of visitors “had an unequivocal impact on sales”, with consumer and location intelligence specialist CACI calculating an additional £19.9 million of consumer spend in Liverpool One as a direct consequence of Eurovision. 

During the semi-finals and final week, total sales increased 23% overall versus the same time last year.

The mall’s stellar footfall and sales results over the period proved the destination’s most successful week to date in 2023, breaking post-Covid-19 record figures outside of the holiday season.  

Driven by a combination of a significant increase in tourists and visitors as Liverpool embraced Eurovision, the city attracted visitors from many more countries than usual, with the most arriving from Switzerland, the US, Uzbekistan, the Netherlands and Ireland, according to CACI. 

Donna Howitt, Place Strategy Director at Liverpool One, said: “We describe Liverpool One as the heart of the UK’s most sociable city, and there is no better endorsement of that than the impact of Eurovision. The whole city rose to the occasion, creating a welcome like no other, and [we were] proud to have played its part.”