Greene King’s commercial director Steve Jebson said: “The increase has been driven up by the impact of the half-term holiday and the gradual recovery of the consumer finances after the festive period.
“An improvement in spending was also seen more clearly outside London and the south east, and by ‘households with kids’.
“With the economy slowly improving we are confident that this will eventually filter down to the wallets and purses of consumers but we do not believe that is happening yet.
This improvement is mainly due to increased family leisure spending during the half-term holidays and households feeling slightly less strapped for cash after their Christmas spending spree when spending peaked at £249.”
The inaugural Greene King Leisure Tracker report, which it claims is the first of its kind in Britain, aims to provide greater insights into consumer discretionary spending with a focus on spending patterns across leisure sectors such as eating out, drinking out, gambling, cinema-going, health & fitness and live events.
Jebson said Greene King planned to publish the report monthly from now based on an online, nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK individuals aged over 18.
Paul Flatters, chief executive of consumer insight and foresight consultancy Trajectory, said: “It is great to see Greene King spearhead the leisure industry by creating the Greene King Leisure Tracker.
“This kind of category leadership shows a true understanding of the importance of consumer behaviour on spending, which not only benefits the leisure trade, but also those involved in reporting it.”
The initial report, and all subsequent reports, can be accessed via a dedicated website, www.gkleisuretracker.co.uk.