Lucky shoppers and diners are in with a chance of winning a contribution to their bill at 33 of Bristol's best loved businesses, thanks to Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID).
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00:00 I think it really helps to boost local businesses, awareness of local businesses, a kind of little
00:08 reminder after the fun and frivolity of Christmas that we're still here.
00:12 So Explore Bristol On Us was a campaign that we kind of thought up to support our business
00:18 community throughout the kind of quieter January month, but also thinking about, you know,
00:24 the consumers, encouraging them to come out and about around the Bristol city centre.
00:30 It was important for us to coincide with the week that started with Blue Monday to get
00:34 people, you know, kind of out and about and socialising and all that kind of stuff.
00:37 I work for The Assemblies, which is a group of restaurants in Bristol. We've got the
00:43 canteen, the On Market Assembly and Number One Harbourside, and I'm the brand marketing
00:48 and events manager for them.
00:50 We have been signed up to a giveaway with the Love Bristol cards as part of an initiative
00:56 from the Bristol City Centre bid called Explore Bristol On Us.
01:01 We've had 33 businesses sign up across a range of different industries. So we've got, you
01:08 know, the Aquarium to the Hippodrome, we've got Pizza Rover to Folk House, Six Clock Gin
01:13 to Lost and Found. There's all sorts of businesses that are getting involved in it, which is
01:17 really good.
01:18 It's January and it's also very cold January. And this is an initiative to get businesses
01:25 busy at one of their quietest times of the year. January, particularly in hospitality,
01:29 and I know this for the many years that I've worked in it, is typically very quiet in January
01:35 and when the cold weather sort of adds to the people not really wanting to go out, everybody's
01:40 a bit skint after Christmas.
01:42 So this has just been a really good way to kind of boost the footfall into the businesses
01:46 and get the economy moving again.
01:48 At a very weird time at the moment, we're very much in a cost of living crisis and small
01:53 businesses are taking a lot of the hit from that. So why is a scheme like this really
01:58 helpful for small businesses in Bristol?
02:01 Yeah, I think, you know, especially at this time of year when the footfall does tend to
02:05 increase, we're very, you know, one of our key prerogatives really is to encourage footfall
02:11 into the city at traditionally quieter times of the year. So anything that we can do to
02:16 help that. And, you know, everyone loves to be in with a chance of winning. And I think,
02:21 you know, it is really appealing to the consumer because there is such a wide choice. There
02:25 is such a wide variety of businesses that have got involved. It's not all about the
02:29 bars, but there's like retail units and kind of experience led businesses involved as well.
02:34 It's really nice to see people out in January. Not only is January cold and everyone's poor,
02:40 but now we've also got dry January.
02:42 What can we expect from the future?
02:44 Well, our next big project that we're working on at the moment is Bristol Light Festival,
02:47 which starts on the 2nd of February. So that is, you know, that's another one. It's getting
02:52 people into the city at traditionally quieter time of year and, you know, getting that footfall
02:56 up and making the city an exciting destination.
02:59 [END]