After a hugely successful St Nicholas Fair in 2021, Make It York have confirmed that plans are already underway for Christmas 2022 with the popular fair set to return on 17th November to 23rd December.
This year marks the 30th Anniversary of St Nicholas Fair, which has been a staple in York’s streets during the festive period since 1992. The famous alpine chalets line Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square creating a festive wonderland, with an array of local traders and artisan products.
In 2021, St Nicholas Fair influenced 71% of visitors to come to York – with 3 in 10 visiting for the market alone.* Traffic to the Christmas content on the Visit York website exceeded 700,000 views, with Visit York social channels reaching over 1.4 million. There was over 140 pieces of media coverage, which had a combined reach of over 19 million. Plus, a national marketing campaign including national radio adverts and 50,000 print Christmas guides which were distributed across the city.
Make It York’s research into 2021 also demonstrated that St Nicholas Fair had a positive impact on other businesses within the city. 32% of visitor spend was at the Christmas Market itself, with 41% shopping elsewhere and 20% eating and drinking in venues away from the market.*
St Nicholas Fair was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, with Visit York hosting a virtual market online. 2021 saw the second year of the Virtual Christmas Market, which allowed shoppers unable to travel to have the opportunity to buy from local traders online.
Tendering is now open for St Nicholas Fair 2022. To be involved in a special year for the market, please find out more here. The deadline for applications is 4th March 2022.
*Data based on 200 people interviewed by Qa Research at York Christmas Markets 2021. Base: 169 visitors and 31 residents
For further information please contact:
Sarah Foster and Brittany Guymer, Communications team at Make It York
Email: comms@makeityork.com
Notes to Editors
About Make It York
Make It York’s purpose is to develop and promote the city and its surroundings – nationally and internationally – as a vibrant and attractive place to live, visit, study, work and do business. Its mission is to grow the economic prosperity and wider wellbeing of York and its citizens. In practice, this means delivering a range of projects and programmes based around our corporate strategic priorities. These are:
- City positioning and profile-raising
- Ensuring an exciting city centre
- Delivering the city’s ground-breaking Cultural Strategy
Visit York is a part of Make It York and is the leisure tourism brand
Under the brand Visit York, Make It York’s aim is to market York as a must-see world-class destination to the leisure visitor and ensure investment to develop the quality of tourism in York.
