Pubs lift community life

Mintel’s survey found that pubs often acted as a status symbol for local areas, adding to the leisure options for people who live there.

The report also looks at the possible impact of minimum alcohol pricing, and says it could help pubs and bars fight back against the trend for at-home drinking. It says this and other social trends is leading to a decline in pub use, with six in ten adults now visiting a pub regularly to drink, down from seven in ten five years ago—but that more than twice as many people find it more enjoyable drinking in a pub than at home.

More people now visit pubs to eat than to drink, Mintel also found. This, with major trading opportunities this year from events including the Olympics and Queen’s Jubilee, meant there was light at the end of the tunnel despite well-publicised closures of many community pubs over the last few years.

For more about Mintel’s Pub Visiting report, click here.