News

The Rise of Daycations – Why You Need a Modular Cafe at Your Leisure Site

The hospitality, leisure and attraction industries have undergone exponential adaptions and untold logistical disturbances over the past year. But since the lightening of the restrictions, potential visitors are beginning to convert into heavier foot traffic than has been seen in years; with renewed freedom has come a new level of demand on the industry.

UK staycations and daycations are continuing their boom in the latter stages of 2021 with the trend projected to surge into and through 2022. Research is showing that the quintessential British day-out is swiftly establishing itself as the go-to for all demographics – offering peace of mind, exploration and convenience.

Daycation Stats

The latest statistics have indicated that 83% of UK travellers would prefer a domestic staycation over foreign travel heading into 2022 – a trend set to reignite the associated industries. This, compounded by the domestic spending on day trips specifically expected to add up to £38.6 billion by the end of 2021, truly paints a favourable – if intense final few months for the sector.

The primary consideration when anticipating this continued spike in footfall across UK leisure and attraction sites is the ability for the services to adapt to the increased capacity. As kitchen specialists, PKL have seen an exponential increase in the demand for our bespoke, tailor wrapped Modular KitchenPod for leisure attractions across Great Britain. Our offerings are modular units which allow for a multitude of size and combination options to fit any requirement. The external finishes of our KitchenPods truly set them apart from the traditional catering kiosk, enabling our clients to fly their brand colours or flex their creative muscles in designing something completely unique.

Trend Check

Staycations, workcations, daycations – possibly the most poignant trend domestic UK discourse is currently experiencing is the addition of the suffix ‘cation’ on the end of virtually any word known to man, it seems! Nevertheless, the aforementioned examples are taking the UK by storm.

Workcation

Workcations are perhaps the newest variable, which has resulted from the drastic rise and continuation of the working from home model. Where does the ‘cation’ come into this you may be pondering? Increasingly, home workers are seeking temporary changes of scenery; relocating across the UK during the odd work week to take advantage of the far more flexible nature in remote working.

Staycation

The Staycation is here to stay. A recent YouGov poll found that 73% of Brits would be choosing a domestic break away over a trip abroad, even after the restrictions are completely lifted. With this significant increase in capacity demand across UK holiday parks, attraction sites and hospitality centres comes an expectation that vital catering services will be significantly stretched during peak times. Ensuring your kitchen availability, menu breadth and accessibility is key to not only providing the bare minimum service, but to compete with the variety of options that will be taking full advantage of the increased number of potential consumers.

Daycation

Finally, we come to the Daycation. The simple definition of the Daycation is visiting a location or attraction for the day before returning home. This could be a trip to a zoo, a beach or an amusement park, for example, this is steadily becoming the UK’s hottest trend looking towards 2022. A highly interesting trend that is beginning to coincide with these daytrips is the ‘last-minute’ culture is seemingly driving recent activity; largely due to restrictions fluctuating from day to day, driving a significantly more ‘romantic’ idea of seizing the day. But why would this matter to you? Simply because you will not have any available numbers to base capacity expectation levels on – resulting in an inability to accurately plan for the visitors you know will be in attendance.

Everyone’s Got To Eat

There has seldom been a greater time to add a KitchenPod and dining offering to your attraction site, with consumer confidence and readiness to attend domestic outings at significantly higher levels than it has been in almost two years.

The question you may ask is, ‘but why?’ Simply put the ability to provide an attractive, on-site food and beverage option exponentially increases both footfall, improves customer satisfaction, and secondary revenue streams for your attraction location – not solely relying on primary ticket sales for income. Taking theme parks as an example, their food and beverage offering comprised of up to 17% of the overall income for the site – the second highest revenue accumulator. Extrapolating these statistics into a more general industry advisory guideline clearly highlights the sheer importance of providing attractive and varied catering options for all attraction and leisure locations.

Mobile Madness

Secondary revenues for attraction sites do not come easier than implementing quality F&B offerings. But understanding the guest’s pressure points and potential stressors, particularly in current times, are vital to providing the most optimal service. So, what is the top pressure point for a potential consumer? Well, for most guests at many busy attraction sites the process of ordering and even queueing can be writhe with friction and generally be a disruptive experience at a time they should be unwinding and appreciating the fantastic day they are having. The process of your guest actually getting food requires them to stop their current activity, potentially delaying that ride they really wanted to experience, or missing out on a scheduled show they were dying to see.

So, how would you tailor a new KitchenPod venture at your attraction site to the current consumer behaviour? The answer could very well lie in mobile ordering. Take a look at Disney for example – since refining their app they saw F&B mobile orders rise from 9% to 84% – in conjunction with contactless payment being 90% across their site, these statistics truly reflect the current trend in mobile ordering preference and accessibility. Allowing an application ordering process at your new KitchenPod would alleviate the stress of taking a large amount of time out from your consumers day-out at your attraction – allowing them to order their food, book a table, or grab-and-go.

Mobile ordering is a trend that is establishing itself globally and is here to stay – with over 24.8 million people in the U.K ordering through mobile applications.

Pod People

Whether you’re running a workcation, staycation or daycation hotspot – everyone’s got to eat! Having a state-of-the-art, Modular KitchenPod facility could be integral to servicing the ever-increasing number of UK domestic-trip takers. It’s statistically evident that a higher level of preparation and consideration would be best practice when forecasting capacity needs for the latter part of 2021 and into 2022. Has your current site got no kitchen or dining facility? Does your kitchen capacity need an upgrade? Perhaps your park could benefit from a fully branded KitchenPod of its own? No matter what your kitchen needs – PKL has the solution.