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During the High Street Voucher Shop Local campaign, Newry BID (Business Improvement District) ran an initiative called ‘TAP into Newry.’ The aim of ‘TAP into Newry’ was to encourage shoppers to spend their vouchers locally in Newry city centre.
Figures released by the Department of the Economy show that this campaign helped to deliver a spend of £10.6m in Newry Mourne and Down- the third highest spend by District at 7.8% of the total allocation.
BT34/BT35 accounted for £7,651,237 (5.6% of the total spend). While not all of this will be Newry city, it is the largest population centre; and accounted for 179,736 transactions in these two postcodes.
It is expected that in the coming months NISRA (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) will provide further breakdowns with Newry BID asking for data specific to Newry city centre.
“Eamonn Connolly, Newry BID Manager, “We are delighted that at a time of great difficulty for traders and business organisations that more than £7.5m was put back into the local economy in the two postcode areas that cover Newry city centre.
“During this period we had one to one direct engagement about the campaign with more than 100 of our members which resulted in more than 120 images on social media relating to #TAPintoNewry. We gave out more than 200 window stickers, gave away 120 vouchers to shoppers in our Random Taps of Kindness campaign and reached hundreds of thousands of people through our press, radio, billboard and social media influencer activities.
“Feedback from businesses was very positive, with many of our members providing vouchers and support for the campaign to help encourage shoppers into the city.”
Eamonn Connolly continued, “We are very grateful that people chose to invest their Spend Local cards with our members. In some cases, we know that it made a difference in being able to trade through the Covid crisis or pull the shutters.”
To find out more about Newry BID and its members check out www.newry.com
