Industry Insights: Hospitality and Historical Venues

The Mintel UK Leisure Venue Catering Report, issued in March 2011, highlights two areas that are of interest for historical venues: catering and the emerging fast and casual yet quality-driven experience.

According to the research, historic venues need to better incorporate their catering offer into the overall personality of the venue in order to increase usage and drive sales. At present, a third of visitors to historic venues think that catering is all part of the experience. This obviously highlights the fact that there is plenty of room for improvement.

The other emerging trend is the fast and casual food experience. Visitors are increasingly looking for the “fast and casual experience” where they can round off their visit with fast, but “real” fresh food that should also be highly customisable. Capitalising on this trend would help venues tap into the third of visitors to historic venues who are looking for a quick bite or snack rather than a full meal but who are looking for quality fresh food.