Demographic shifts, with the growing spending power of GenZ and their younger counterparts, GenY, has fuelled a growth in experience spend over that of buying ‘stuff’. As the world has emerged from the pandemic this appetite for experiences has become more acute: across major global economies spend on eating out in 2022 was 5.8% above pre-covid levels exceeding the 3.3% growth seen in fashion spend. This is a continuation of the trend seen pre-pandemic where eating out spend increased by an average of 4.5% per annum (2009–2019) versus the 2.6% growth in fashion spend over the same period.

The strength in the bounce in leisure spend, and the forecast resilience of this spend over the next five years (5.5% per annum 2022–27), has been reflected in occupier requirements with F&B and leisure operators being one of the most acquisitive across several city markets globally. And it’s not just domestic operators that are in expansion mode. There has been an increase in concepts and operators looking at key gateway cities for international expansion opportunities including names such as Time Out market, Big Mamma Group, Fever, Zero Latency, Caprice and Soho House.

The question is then, what international gateway cities globally offer the greatest opportunity for acquisitive leisure and F&B concepts? Our latest global leisure cities index explores all.

Read the articles within Savills Global Leisure Cities Index 2023, below: