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Consumers now feel safer going to restaurants, hotels and attending in-person events, according to a new survey from Deloitte.

Their monthly ‘Consumer Tracker’ survey tracks Irish consumers’ attitudes towards personal wellbeing, financial concerns, travel and hospitality, transport and retail.

The most recent data was gathered between 24 and 30 June.

It shows that consumers’ financial concerns remain stable, with no change in the number of those concerned about making upcoming payments.

There was a 2% decrease in those concerned about losing their job.

The data shows that consumers continue to feel safer across the board, with notable increases in those feeling safe engaging in person-to-person services (up 3%); attending in-person events (up 5%); going to a restaurant (up 8%); and staying in a hotel (up 8%).

Concerns around returning to the workplace continue to lessen, with a decrease of 4% on the previous wave of research.

Consumer confidence in visiting physical stores has increased by 5% on the previous wave of research.

Consumers’ intended shopping channel has remained stable, with ‘in-store’ remaining the preference across multiple categories, including clothing and footwear, electronics, restaurants and groceries.

However, despite the widespread reopening of physical stores that occurred shortly before the survey was conducted, there was no decrease recorded in the number of those who said they would prefer to shop online.

The latest survey observed increases in spending intent across multiple categories.

There were increases in consumers’ intent to spend on medicines (up 3%), healthcare (up 5%), restaurants / take-away (up 5%) and travel (up 5%).

Spending intent on less-discretionary items has remained stable, with small increases recorded in consumers’ intent to spend on household goods (up 2%), groceries (up 1%) and utilities (up 1%), and a 2% decrease in intent to spend on furnishings.

The survey recorded a 5% increase in spending intent on travel and a 3% increase in confidence in air travel.

There were also increases recorded in the number of those planning to travel for leisure in the next three months, by rail (up 3%), car rental (up 3%), on an international flight (up 6%) and to a hotel (up 6%).

Article Source – Consumers feel safer going to restaurants, survey shows – RTE

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