Leading discovery and booking platform DesignMyNight and Access Collins has reported that bookings have doubled in the last seven days for 22nd July, the day that the Lionesses take to the pitch for the Women’s World Cup. This last-minute rush to secure a place in pubs around the country to watch games in this year’s tournament reflects the interest in women’s football, which peaked when England’s Lionesses claimed the UEFA Women’s Euro title in 2022.
Leighanne Bent, Senior Marketing Manager of DesignMyNight commented “We knew that interest in this year’s Women’s World Cup was high from the number of searches we have been recording on the website but, as the tournament gets closer to kick off, it seems that people are now really ready to commit to choosing a pub to watch the upcoming games. After the tournament opens on 20th July, England will be in action against Haiti just a couple of days later, on Saturday 22nd July, and more than two-thirds of bookings to see the Lionesses made through the website and on Access Collins are for this first match. With a recent DesignMyNight survey revealing that 55% of people would book a table to watch the Women’s World Cup games less that one week in advance, we are expecting to see a further stream of bookings for subsequent matches until the end of the competition.
“The survey also showed that, although 70% said they hadn’t watched the Women’s World Cup previously, 82% said they would in 2023, with 60% ready to book a table if England make it through to the final. If they haven’t already, pub operators should make sure their match screenings are promoted effectively. It’s reasonable to anticipate that both interest and reservations will increase once the tournament is underway and, hopefully, as the Lionesses progress.”
The 2023 World Cup offers both challenges and opportunities for pub operators given the timings of matches in host countries Australia and New Zealand, with the schedule including games that start as far apart as 1am and 1.30pm in the UK. Advertising offers and securing and managing reservations will all contribute to a successful event that generates additional revenue and technology, as always, can help maximise the return for pubs.
“Hospitality operators are showing their creativity in organising everything from breakfasts, themed food and drink packages and brunch deals to suit the many different kick off times” added Leighanne Bent. “Using DesignMyNight and signing up to the website’s new search engine that allows customers to reserve tables via date and time will help to improve the rate of conversion from query to booking, enable deposits to be taken, provide an opportunity to upsell and promote future matches in order to increase the number of tables reserved in advance.”
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 kicks off in Auckland at 8am on Thursday 20th July when New Zealand play Norway, with England’s Lionesses playing their first-round group matches against Haiti at 10.30am on 22nd July, Denmark at 9.30am on 28th July and China at 12noon on 1st August.
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For Immediate Release: Wednesday 19th July 2023
For Further Information: Leighanne Bent, leighanne@designmynight.com
07468 465099
NOTES TO EDITORS
About DesignMyNight:
DesignMyNight, part of The Access Group, was founded in 2010 by two University friends and has taken off to become one of the most loved discovery and booking resources on the market, bringing in over 3.9 million monthly users across the UK, Ireland and APAC. DesignMyNight has a suite of leading B2B sister softwares; Access Collins is a booking and enquiry management solution, which processed over 14.3 million bookings across 8,500 clients in 2022; Access Tonic is a free to use event ticketing software and Access Soda is a voucher software built for the hospitality industry. DesignMyNight also has an in-house Venue Finding service that is a free service.
For Further Information: Leighanne Bent, leighanne@designmynight.com
07468 465099
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