09. July 2024
Large events such as the EURO 2024 football tournament obtain sufficient attention so that they affect expenditure patterns, particularly on match days. We use expenditure data from Monitoring Consumption Switzerland (MCS) in the category food & beverage services in Switzerland to quantify the size of this effect.
Figure 1: Year-on-Year expenditure growth rate for food and beverage services (respective week in June 2024 relative to that week in June 2023)
Figure 1 shows that year-on-year expenditure growth per week in the category food and beverage services did not change much during June 2024. There was no clear upward shift of these expenditures in the second half of June after the start of the EURO 2024 on June 14. Indeed, if compared with expenditures in June 2023, expenditures for food and beverage services were 5% to 9% lower in June 2024 (depending on the week), which may be associated with the less friendly weather in June 2024.
Although there was no clearly visible effect of the EURO 2024 on expenditures in bars and restaurants overall, Figure 2 reveals an interesting W-shaped expenditure pattern on match days of the Swiss national team, relative to expenditures on non-match days (that is, comparable days in the three weeks before the EURO 2024 started).
Figure 2: Expenditures on food and beverage services on match days of the Swiss national team in June 2024
Figure 2 illustrates that expenditures for food and beverage services followed a W-shaped pattern on match days of the Swiss national team. Not surprisingly, payments were higher before the games started, during the break at half-time, and after the game ended. Such W-shaped pattern was not only visible for payments in bars and restaurants but also for water consumption associated with the use of bathrooms (see here).
As long as the associated infrastructure can handle the peaks of the usage on both fronts, the owners of bars and restaurants will care more about the average expenditure generated on match days of the Swiss national team relative to non-match days. Figure 3 shows that match days were a mixed blessing for owners of bars and restaurants: the small average match-day effect on expenditures hides substantial differences across different match days. Matches may either complement or substitute expenditures for food and beverage services. This was associated with the time during the day, at which the match took place.
Figure 3: Changes of expenditures for food and beverage services on match days relative to comparable non-match days
For example, Figure 3 shows that the match of Switzerland against Italy, which started at 18 hrs, seems to have substituted for expenditures for dinners during that time: expenditures in bars and restaurants decreased by 3.8% relative to comparable non-match days. The match of Switzerland against Germany took place at 21 hrs instead and seems to have been more of a complement to expenditures for food and beverage services: expenditures in bars and restaurants increased by 1.1% relative to comparable non-match days.
Match days of the Swiss national team thus seem to have been a mixed blessing for the owners of bars and restaurants in Switzerland. Whether expenditures decreased or increased depended on whether the offered service complemented the match at the time when the match took place. Overall, a game which took place at 21 hrs seems to have been a better complement to expenditures in bars and restaurants than a game which took place at 18 hrs.