News

The team and I have had the real joy of getting back out into the county over recent months, engaging with our members. It is no surprise that there are mixed messages currently as how the consumer market is behaving.
 
From talking around the county to big attractions, there is a real concern that customer footfall has been dropping. Up until mid April everything was set on course for a better year, then the narrative around inflation and all the other negative economic leavers started pulling negatively against potential growth.  National insurance going up, community tax hikes, fuel cost hikes etc.

Google Analytics is a real time reflection of consumer behaviour, and we can see behaviours acting as businesses have been reflecting over the last month. We were seeing increases of + 26% up until April and then we start to see declines - mirrored in general behaviours. 

The one area that is bucking the trend is 'Festivals and Events'.  However, these numbers are still not be dismissed as there is still a huge amount of visibility on site in all areas. 

Please see below for the actual results.  If you have any questions or queries you can always email me at john@visitsomerset.co.uk 

NB - one area that we all need to understand NOW - over 50% of all our visitors are consuming our information from mobile phones. If your website is not responsive then Google will now severely penalise you. Mobile technology is the way of the future that has clearly already arrived.