Westfield London prepares for busy summer

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 19, 2018

Westfield London is hoping its £600m expansion will attract a record number of visitors this summer as it continues its latest phase of openings.

International visitors will boost sales throughout the summer, building on a 2.4% increase in sales from Chinese visitors in the first quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, Middle Eastern and Northern African shoppers continue to increase their spending at the shopping centre after driving the average spend per person up to £500 in the first quarter. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE are the top three spending Middle Eastern countries, Westfield said.

The shopping destination in White City opened the first phase of its 740,000 expansion in March and is due to launch more stores and a food hall dedicated to Japanese food in the coming months.

“The £600 million expansion of Westfield London has allowed us to diversify our offering so that we appeal to more international visitors than ever before,” said group director and Europe chief marketing officer Myf Ryan.

“With summer a key moment for tourism we are excited to offer world firsts such as Ichiba and our very own major outdoor entertainment space in Westfield Square, ensuring we continue to be a destination for international visitors.”

According to the shopping centre owner, now part of France’ s Unibail Rodamco, over half a billion people visited its two London centres in the past ten years. This generated over £15 billion in sales.