Nottingham – the place to go in 2010

Whilst I was doing some research at the weekend I was reminded that Nottingham had been named in a Dorling Kinderley article as the 3rd most important places to visit in 2010.

We were pipped into Bronze medal position by Reykjavik and Istanbul. But we still came in the top three – and that’s some accolade. When you consider all of the Cities in the world! Apparently there are 2,469,501 cities in the World.

The reasons given were threefold – The new Robin Hood film, The Nottingham Contemporary and our Shopping!

I have blogged before about the first two, but have tended to overlook the third. I rather take our shopping for granted – but we have some great brands. Of course Paul Smith is probably the biggest name – and it all started here! But then we have latterley attracted Vivienne Westwood. We also have the very cool One True Saxon – if Carl Froch shops there it must be ok! And that’s just fashion!

Although Broad marsh Shopping Centre is now showing signs of its age – and needs the upgrade we have been looking forward to for the last few years, Victoria Centre still draws the crowds (estimated at 23m each year!). And the connecting Bridlesmith Gate has one of the highest footfall figures in Europe. The City’s average weekly footfall is between 800,000 – 1,200,000.

Waitrose have opened a convenience store at the £70m Trinity Square development.

In 2009, the City slipped slightly to 7th place in the Experian Retail Survey. The order is:

1 London (2008, 1)
2 Glasgow (2)
3 Birmingham (3)
4 Manchester (4)
5 Liverpool (5)
6 Cardiff (10)
7 Nottingham (6)
8 Leeds (7)
9 Edinburgh (8)
10 Bluewater (9)

As we will always find it difficult to compete with some of the larger conurbation’s, we need to hold onto and promote the specialist shops and make sure the overall offer remains good.

Dorling Kindersley obviously thought it added to the attraction of visiting!