Record numbers of diners help to serve up a £600,000 boost to the local economy during the latest Newcastle Restaurant Week.
Dry January, Veganuary and Brexit failed to dent the enthusiasm of food lovers in Newcastle and the wider North East in January’s NE1 Newcastle Restaurant Week, when tens of thousands of people dined out for only £10 or £15 a head at some of the city’s top restaurants.
The January 21 to 27 event exceeded all expectations and smashed previous event records with a record turnout eating at 112 restaurants, tempting in diners with special Restaurant Week menus. More than 45,000 vouchers were downloaded from NE1’s Get into Newcastle website which received a record number of 1.7m web visits, 27% up on last year.
This year the dates were not announced until the start of the new year, to prevent restaurants being inundated with bookings over the festive period, making the reservation period even busier with many of the restaurants almost fully booked in the week the dates were announced.
Organisers at NE1, the Newcastle BID company, reported a 35% average increase in trade for participating restaurants compared to January 2018’s Restaurant Week.
Stephen Patterson, director of communications at NE1 Ltd, said: “We love the vibrancy that NE1 Newcastle Restaurant Week creates in the city and to see Newcastle full of people on what would otherwise be quiet times of the year.
“The whole of NE1’s events programme is designed to celebrate the quality and diversity of the city’s offer and provide compelling reasons for people to visit and take advantage of what is available in this great city.
“Our events are designed to play to the city’s strengths and to raise awareness of what makes Newcastle unique while delivering more immediate economic returns for participating businesses and the local economy.
“Restaurant Week certainly delivers on both counts – creating over a half-a-million pound business boost for the city’s restaurant industry and focusing attention on the city and its vibrant restaurant scene.
“The event is much emulated in other parts of the country and has helped put Newcastle on the map with people travelling and staying in the city to enjoy the Newcastle Restaurant Week event.
“Events are a way of showcasing what a city has to offer and help to promote it not just to its own residents but to national and international audiences. As so many of our experiences are now online it is particularly reassuring to see that we still yearn for those opportunities that can only be experienced in person.”