With just a week until Christmas Day, Christmas markets up and down the country are bustling with people, visiting their nearest towns and cities with the hopes of getting in the festive before the big day.
It’s an annual tradition which transforms towns and cities into festive wonderlands stuffed with mouth-watering food, drinks, and stalls laden with great gift ideas.
A new study by Envirofone, reveals the most and least popular Christmas markets in the UK this festive season, taking into account the general publics reaction to the markets since they opened a month ago.
SCOTLANDS TOP CHRISTMAS MARKET EVOKES FRUSTRATION AMONGST VISITORS
In total, 15 UK Christmas markets were ranked, scraping 63,160 social media posts that mentioned each Christmas market during last year’s opening period to analyse the emotional sentiment – identifying tones of anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise to reveal the percentage of positive and negative mentions. Additionally, we collected data from Instagram hashtags and TikTok views to see which are the most popular across those social media platforms.
Whilst overall Edinburgh Christmas markets take 2nd place when taking into account overall social listening, TikTok views and Instagram mentions, 16% of the social media posts mentioning the markets between October 2022 and the first week of December indicate feelings of anger, disgust and sadness towards the event.
Although many praised the markets for their variation of gift stalls and the range of food and drink on offer, the majority of the negative comments come from those commenting on the overcrowding and queues that have been in place to enter the markets.
People have taken to social media to comment on the unnessesary amount of food vendors at this years event, slamming the prices of the food and drink on offer at them.
However, we cannot forget the hidden wonders that Edinburgh Christmas markets offers, including a Christmas tree maze, theatre performances and concerts unsurprisingly has been viewed the most out of all the Christmas Markets on TikTok, with 12,516,000 views.
Mentioned a total of 6,700 times on social media during 2021’s festive season, 17% of these posts evoked feelings of joy, with the markets being noted for their festive feel, the number of activities that the event offers and the range of winter warming food available.
London’s Hyde Park Winter Wonderland ranks first as our festive front-runner, boasting 65,780 Instagram hashtags, over 10.5 million views on TikTok and 14,000 search mentions.
A favourite in the North of England, Manchester takes home third place with 16% of the social mentions evoking feelings of joy around the festive feel of the markets from those mentioning it.
NEWCASTLE IS RANKED THE LEAST ENJOYABLE
Newcastle sits at the bottom of the leader board, with 7% of mentions of the markets being of anger and fear. As “COVID” was a popular term used in conjunction with both Newcastle and Cardiff markets, this indicates that last year COVID was still affecting the running of the events.
Although 16% of Blenheim Palace mentions are joy, it’s high ticket prices pull down the ranking of the event, placing it in fourteenth place.
RANKED: CHRISTMAS MARKETS FROM MOST TO LEAST POPULAR
| Rank | Christmas Market | Instagram (no of hashtags) | TikTok (no of views) | Total mentions | % Positivementions | % Negativementions | Average Index Score |
| 1 | Winter Wonderland | 65,780 | 10,596,079 | 14,000 | 17% | 9% | 0.75 |
| 2 | Edinburgh | 47,214 | 12,516,400 | 6,700 | 17% | 12% | 0.78 |
| 3 | Manchester | 62,462 | 5,041,542 | 7,500 | 16% | 13% | 0. 83 |
| 4 | York | 9,315 | 445,842 | 9,400 | 12% | 14% | 1.27 |
| 5 | Lincoln | 12,275 | 494,313 | 2,900 | 14% | 26% | 1.28 |
| 6 | Birmingham | 17,789 | 525,978 | 4,800 | 16% | 7% | 1.34 |
| 7 | Belfast | 8,670 | 4,213,156 | 3,600 | 9% | 23% | 1.46 |
| 8 | Bath | 31,422 | 21,995 | 2,200 | 20% | 6% | 1.68 |
| 9 | Nottingham | 4,877 | 120,135 | 3,100 | 8% | 31% | 1.73 |
| 10 | Winchester | 7,908 | 34,779 | 1,400 | 23% | 2% | 1.84 |
| 11 | Liverpool | 3,600 | 602,204 | 3,100 | 10% | 10% | 1.84 |
| 12 | Exeter | 3,294 | 25,270 | 918 | 21% | 4% | 2.09 |
| 12 | Cardiff | 4,072 | 155,923 | 1,200 | 11% | 8% | 2.13 |
| 13 | Blenheim Palace | 6,937 | 96,308 | 442 | 16% | 1% | 2.24 |
| 15 | Newcastle | 2,248 | 3,780 | 1,900 | 11% | 7% | 2.40 |
Many other Christmas markets stand out when looking at individual metrics. York sits in second place for total social mentions, Belfast is ranked at number four on TikTok, gaining 4,213,156 views, whilst 23% of Winchester Christmas market social mentions were positive.
For the full study, please visit, here.
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