An open market?

The Belfast Christmas Market has been taking place on the grounds of the city hall for more than six years now, but what effect does the spectacle have on trade for permanent hospitality operators in the city centre and how does it impact the city’s economy generally? Jennifer Warnock has been investigating…

Every year Belfast City Hall opens its grounds to Market Place Europe Ltd. and for the six weeks leading up to the festive season, the Belfast Christmas Market fills the space with the sights, sounds and smells of the holiday period with craft stalls, bars and the irresistible aroma of delicious European foods.

Market Place Ltd. pays for the use of the city hall, meaning that it’s a great money-spinner for the council without the need for an organisational task force. The city benefits with an increase of footfall and tourists, and the locals get the opportunity to experience something a little different.

Andrew Irvine, Belfast’s city centre manager, is one of those who is very positive regarding the market’s influence on trade approaching the festive season:

“I think the markets are a great thing for Belfast and the numbers around it are on the last survey carried out by Millward Brown Ulster (MBU) showed that 26 per cent of the people who attended the market said they would not have been in the city centre had it not been on,” he says.

And he adds: “To our knowledge, there are roughly 20,000 people a day attending the market. Therefore, as far as we’re concerned that’s 5,000 people a day who simply wouldn’t be here if the market wasn’t.”

The MBU research, carried out in 2012, showed that 60 per cent of people visiting the markets intended to visit other shops in the city and the average footfall over the duration of the market was found to be 581,061 people, with a total gross impact over the four-week period in the order of £22m.

While this may seem like a great business model, however, there has been criticism in the past of its impact on established food and drinks businesses in the city. Bob McCoubrey of Mourne Seafood – which has a well-established outlet just a two-minute walk from the market – raises some very valid points:

“I do understand that’s it’s very much a double-edged sword. Although it does bring people into the city, it would have a negative impact on our lunch time trade within the first few weeks of the market arriving in the city,” he explains. “People want to go and get a kangaroo burger for their lunch. Towards the end of the month it wouldn’t affect us as much because we begin to get our Christmas trade in.

“My main gripe with it”, Bob goes on, “is that the money should be staying in our city, not going out of Northern Ireland. It’s a great chance for us to showcase what we can do here, but we don’t do that. We just produce a bad replica of what you have on the Continent. I think the city council could be a bit more imaginative with what they do with this event.”

Bob has been approached by the council to take part in the market in the past, but the £15,000 price tag represents a hefty investment for any small business:

“There’s a lot of money involved in it and I would like that money to stay in Belfast,” says Bob.

But city centre publican, Padraig Brennan, who has owned Brennan’s Bar in Great Victoria Street (formerly The Beaten Docket) for the last four-and-a-half years, is enthusiastic about the Christmas market.

Padraig told LCN that based on his observations, he believed the market was instrumental in bringing more people into the city centre and boosting the generally festive atmosphere – all of which, he feels, is good for business.

“We’re a ‘passing trade’ pub and the more people that there are moving around the town and enjoying themselves, maybe going into pubs they haven’t been in before, the better for us,” he added. “The market is bringing those people into the centre of the city and they have to move outwards, calling into places as they go.”

Three-quarters of the hundred or so stall holders come from various countries throughout Europe, but Belfast city councillor Deirdre Hargey says that the market’s international flavour is an important part of its overall appeal:

“We’re trying to promote Belfast as a forward-looking metropolitan city that can compete with other European cities. We know there’s a fine balance in what we can produce”, says the councillor, “and we want to have something that’s distinctly Belfast to ensure that we’re profiling the local feel, taste and culture of the city. But the problem lies in getting local people to come out and visit that because they live it every day, so we’ve had to bring in a different dimension too.”

Cllr. Hargey says that the event is outsourced to Market Place Ltd. because the council simply doesn’t have the resources to be able to stage the event itself

And she points out that local businesses are actively encouraged to take part in the markets both by having a stall there and by advertising their business on the information points throughout the market site free-of-charge.

The council does this, according to Cllr. Hargey, because it doesn’t want to push local people away towards other markets. And it’s also looking at the possibility of providing transport to City Hall from nearyby St. George’s Market:

“We also run a ‘Pitch Perfect’ competition though Market Place Europe,”adds the councillor. “The winner of that competition can then trade at the market free-of-charge. Last year’s winner now trades permanently in St Georges Market, they were able to use that as a launching pad for their own business, so this is an aspect of the Christmas Market that really works.”