This year, we are pleased to continue our events initiative, hosting 14 markets and events in the central BID area of Hamilton, aimed at promoting and highlighting the area while attracting new visitors to the town. Driving footfall and adverting the town centre as a vibrant area form key aspects of the current business plan in place to support economic opportunity within the district.
A bumper year for events footfall: 39k additional visitors in 2024!
This year we’re expected in the region of 39k additional visitors to the BID area for our monthly markets, gala days and festive events. This will mark our best year recorded for event footfall, largely due to the success of Hamilton Market which has been trading monthly from March 2024.
Strategic design:
Our events are designed to achieve the following…
- Increase visitors numbers on the day of the event
- Attract new visitors to the area that otherwise would not visit. This includes event design aimed at specific demographic’s
- Draw visitors to a central zone to maximise impact, business visibility across the area
- Provide a great visitor experience alongside showcasing the area in support of return visits following event days
- Provide a positive and vibrant image of the area as part of the marketing plan
Through increases in footfall, we aim to provide economic opportunity through additional on the day spending and visibility of town centre businesses for post event spending.
Public survey results:
To support our understanding of the potential economic effects of this ongoing initiative, we carried out a survey of event day visitors. (114 responses received / 5.18% of our average additional event attendance per event for the year so far).
Survey findings:
28% of event visitors travel from out with Hamilton to our events
35% of visitors to our events do not normally visit the town
99% of visitors coming to our events spend in the town centre businesses on the day
26.3% of visitors spend in the town centre businesses following event days
£41 is the average spend in the town centre business on event days according to respondents
94% of respondents agree that bringing in more footfall through events is of benefit to the area
We would like to thank our respondents, event visitors, our team, and the town centre businesses and organisations including South Lanarkshire Council for their ongoing support with this initiative.
Getting involved…
There are many ways that businesses and organisations can get directly involved with these initiatives. This includes, exhibiting at events, business showcasing on our event website, offering market day offers as a method to link with our advertising and much more. If you are in the area. for more info / advice on how to maximise this opportunity, get in touch at info@hamiltonbid.org
Community benefit…
In addition to economic benefit, our events provide free to access activities and performances for the community. Our free activities such as kids arts and crafting, cake decorating, face painting and family trails will be accessed by in the region of 3k-5k participants over 14 events in 2024. Our performances will be accessed be an estimated 39k visitors this year through events such as Hamilton Easter Gala, Markets and the Light Switch on. We aim to provide the community with value through our activities, utilising under used spaces and filling them with activity, in turn supporting the town centre visitor experience, dwell time and furthering economic opportunity.
