Oasis reunion expected to give ‘multimillion-pound’ boost to hospitality

Oasis’ reunion tour next summer has not only delighted fans but also sparked excitement amongst hospitality operators who expect to see a major surge in demand.

Three new dates in Manchester, London and Edinburgh have been added to the initial 14-date tour after an “unprecedented" number of people registered for the pre-sale ticket ballot.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said the tour was likely to deliver “a multimillion-pound boost to the hospitality sector next year”.

Sacha Lord, night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, told the BBC Manchester alone could see a £15m boost to the local economy during the band’s five nights in the city, with much of that going to hotels, bars and pubs.

Manchester is one of five cities on Oasis’ tour, which includes five nights at London’s Wembley Stadium, two at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, three at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh and two at Croke Park in Dublin.

Taylor Swift’s recent UK tour reportedly provided a £997m boost to the UK economy and hospitality venues are expecting to see a similar ‘halo effect’ from Oasis’ concerts.

David Byrne, head of events and marketing at food and retail business Boxpark, said such shows are “hugely important” for the wider economy.

The group, which has a site at Wembley Stadium with 20 street food traders and three bars, ran events and activities for 60,000 fans during Swift’s tour dates.

Byrne said the business is already planning an Oasis fan park and is working on various drinks specials.

Similarly, at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield stadium, contract caterer Elior is planning to employ a workforce of over 1,000 catering and bar staff to operate over 20 food and drink outlets across the site.

Hotels are also expected to see a major boost in room bookings. A spokesperson for Premier Inn told The Caterer the budget chain was “already seeing really strong demand across all dates and locations” during the Oasis tour and was “expecting it to be one of our most popular events of all time”.

Earlier this week fans accused Maldron Hotels of cancelling their bookings during Oasis’ Manchester tour dates and relisting them at higher prices.

However, the hotel chain said it would honour all the original bookings and blamed the cancellations on a “technical error”.

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