Less than a quarter of young adults plan to visit pubs for Halloween

19 October 2016 by Ruth Wyatt

Over half of young adults believe that local pubs have an important role to play in celebrating seasonal events, such as Halloween, but less than a quarter intend to visit their local for this year's spookfest, according to research from Greene King.

This month's Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker research shows that 53% of 18-24 year olds believe it is important for pubs to play a role in celebrations like Guy Fawkes night, Christmas and Halloween, but just 23% intend to put their cash on the bar this month. The vast majority will be at either a house party (41%) or celebrating at a pal's place (36%).

Halloween appears to have eclipsed Bonfire Night in popularity with 31% of young adults celebrating Halloween every year against 25% marking Guy Fawkes' attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The national average is 19% for Halloween and 17% for the traditional British celebration.

Rob Rees, Greene King group marketing director said: "It is great to see Brits getting into the spirit of Halloween again this year, with nearly one in five people celebrating the occasion and a further 12% celebrating it most years. Halloween is one of the many important events that we celebrate in our pubs, and is particularly popular with young people.

The Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker research is based on a nationally representative sample of some 4,000 households.

Meanwhile, Greene King's tracker estimated that the average British household spent £205 on out of home leisure in September this year, a £3 (2%) year-on-year decrease and a £24 (11%) drop month-on-month.

Eating out and drinking out experienced year-on-year increases of £4 (5%) and £4 (9%), respectively.

Other Leisure continued to struggle, with a £12 (15%) decrease in spending year-on-year.

Commenting on this month's Leisure Spend Tracker, Rees added: "The end of the summer holidays has inevitably resulted in a month-on-month contraction in Leisure Spend. However, year-on-year figures for Eating and Drinking Out remain positive, indicating that consumers are continuing to enjoy the extensive options that the UK's casual dining market has to offer."

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