June 2025 results from the Cultural Enterprises‘ Commercial Performance Barometer are now live on our dashboard. For the second consecutive month we have achieved a record number of responses – thank you to you all. This month’s key findings include:
- Admissions 3% down on June 2024 – across all venue types
- Hot weather was the biggest driver of poor performance
- Cost-of-living is driving down on-site spend
- US tariffs are already having an impact for around 1 in 5.
After a relatively positive April and May, the picture for June is a little more negative, average admissions 3% down on the same period in 2024. 53% of venues reported a decline in admissions of 3% or more, with just 35% reporting an increase.
It’s hard to look past June’s heatwave when explaining this month’s fall in admissions – 27% of venues giving weather as a reason for a suboptimal commercial performance. Unlike in April, when the hot weather favoured venues with an outdoor offer, there was no obvious difference in venue type this month, the record temperatures likely making any day out less appealing. As one outdoor venue stated:
“On days like this, our visitors will always choose the beach.”
The cost-of-living crisis remains a drag on performance – 12% citing it as a barrier. For some sites this means visitors not crossing the pay barrier, whilst for others it means less spend on site. For free venues, this can translate to just as many visitors but fewer visits to exhibitions and less spend in catering and retail . As one venue says:
“We think that the economic environment is impacting our museum visitors – we’ve seen a real increase in free museum entry – and a fall in terms of paid-for exhibition visitor volumes. This has impacted our secondary spend in both catering and retail.”
When it comes to retail, this venue is not alone – retail SPV level with June 2024 and ATV, 1% down – a decline in real terms, with both figures below inflation. It’s notable that this is the fifth consecutive month that retail SPV has increased less than inflation.
We may also be seeing the impact of US tariffs/instability – in this month’s special questions, 23% indicated tariffs are having a negative impact on trade, and 20% on visitor numbers. Unsurprisingly, the impact for visitors is particularly strong in London, Edinburgh, and other ‘US honeypot locations’ across the country. The impact on trade extends beyond these tourist hotpots. Examples include:
“We have ceased sales from our online shop to US due to complexities of tariffs.”
“We are not able to reorder our bestsellers due to tariff increase. Also we noticed that there had been less group visits visiting us from the USA this year.”
“The US was the main country we sent overseas orders to. We’d already lost Europe due to Brexit (we’re too under-resourced to be able to do what’s needed), and then now we’ve lost America as well.”
“We’re seeing the impact of recent political developments with an approx. 16% drop in American ticket sales.”
“US orders on our online died a death as soon as they were announced moving rom 9% of our online total to under 1%.”
On a more positive note, our new ‘year-to-date’ admissions question indicates that combining all visitors between January to June, the sector is in line with 2024 – albeit down amongst indoor sites. Despite the difficult headwinds, a strong Easter is still keeping most venues on track.
We have also seen some individual success stories this month – be it through popular exhibitions or rooftop restaurants. We look forward to sharing these examples of best practice in our next free webinar on 23 September, book your place here.
Where to find out more
Members can learn much more via our online dashboard where you can filter by sub-group and merge months. We have now had more than 250 sites contribute to the Barometer (June was our best month yet), and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow this service in the coming months. Members can expect the latest survey invite on the first Monday of each month.
For more information about the Monthly Commercial Performance Barometer, including to check who receives the survey for your organisation, please contact tom@culturalenterprises.org.uk or jon.young@decisionhouse.co.uk.
