This month’s Greene King Leisure Tracker proves good news for the hospitality sector.

Overall, average spending rose by 3% year-on-year to reach £229 for August as a whole. Both Eating Out and Drinking Out enjoyed month-on-month and year-on-year growth in the last days of summer. Increases of £9 (10%) and £7 (15%) for Eating Out and Drinking Out respectively highlight the strength of this month’s findings and while Other Leisure continues to struggle relative to 2015 with a year-on-year decrease of £9 (10%), its importance to the summer holidays is clear, with month-on-month growth of £9 (13%).

Drinking out also saw an 8% increase on July’s figures indicating healthy signs for the sector. This ring-fencing of Drinking Out spend continues with a 9th consecutive month of leisure spend mix at 22% or greater indicating that while other aspects of spending may fluctuate, Drinking Out is a protected part of the leisure portfolio.

The August Leisure Tracker (which you can download here) also starts to assess the impact of Pokémon GO on the British public, asking which impacts, if any, has Pokémon GO had on your life? August represents the first month of complete data on the impacts of the app on the behaviours of GB adults.