The capital city of Wales is littered with nightclubs, bars, pubs and clubs that really only come alive after hours and feed into the economy of Cardiff. During the day, you can be forgiven for missing them as their lights, music and well dressed door staff only spring into action at night.
It’s not just the watering holes that drip feed the city’s bank balance though. In amongst all the action, are the countless takeaway outlets, restaurants, amusement arcades and of course the endless taxis that parade the streets night after night. There’s no shortage of activity in the city after dark.
In fact, one group of Christians have cottoned onto the fact that there is so much activity at night and are ‘doing their bit’ to encourage sensible behaviour.
Tourism is obviously a vital part of Cardiff’s economy - as the capital city of Wales, it relies on tourists and visitors to bring money into the area. In fact, 20% of the city’s employers are from the tourism and retail trade. So it’s not surprising that so much effort is being poured into ‘social hubs’ to give the night-time spender what they’re looking for.
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The Bay is a particularly unique part of Cardiff and certainly a hive of activity at night. Those running businesses in this area definitely benefit from revellers. Choosing to spend an evening in the bay means that you can watch a film, go for dinner and have a few drinks in one of the area’s swanky bars. So there’s nothing short of something to do and the night-time economy here is certainly thriving.
It also attracts a very different spender by night; in the daytime, the stree
ts of the bay are awash with families at the Dr.Who exhibition, or tourists admiring the Wales Millennium Centre. By night though, it attracts the young professionals who want to unwind, drink fancy cocktails and quite literally dispose of their income.
St. Mary Street in the centre of Cardiff is another street which transforms when the sun goes down. In a busy afternoon it’s filled with rushed shoppers and people ‘doing coffee’. At night though, party goers from Cardiff and the Valleys descend on the street to spend their well earned money.
For people from the Valleys particularly, money is no object at the weekends, it's a chance to let their hair down and escape their working lives and they’re not concerned about how much they spend. So they’ll hop from club to club, buying round after round of drinks and ending their night with a greasy takeaway and probably an expensive taxi home.
But for those people, expense is no object because the night-time is their escapism, a different world from their daily lives.
City Road is another popular destination for hungry folk craving a takeaway. It’s a street which is end to end with Chinese, Indian, Italian, Portugese, Mexican, Kurdish, and British take out-food. Again though, in the day-time, it’s closed signs and lights off. The night-time really is where these businesses make their money.
The night-time economy is exciting and different though - it offers us an alternative to what we can spend our money on in the daytime and this is largely why these businesses cash in after hours. We wouldn’t want to visit a club or have a kebab at two in the afternoon. We want to spend our money in a different way when the sun goes down and this is what hugely contributes to the economy of Cardiff.
Listen to more about Cardiff's night-time economy here:
