Ghent retail and hospitality figures (City of Ghent).

What is this article about?

This City of Ghent page brings together insights and key figures on Ghent retail and hospitality, and provides additional explanation about:

• a retail & hospitality dashboard (supply, vacancy, retail floor area, …)
• crowd measurements (how many people are in a zone) and spending (card payments) in the city

It is a useful source if you want to support your (retail or hospitality) business with data, or if you want to understand where the figures come from.

What can you find on the page?

1) Retail & hospitality dashboard

• Reference to the dashboard and database of provincies.incijfers.be
• Information on which themes you can consult there (e.g., occupancy of retail units, hospitality, vacancy)
• Note that the online report is updated annually

2) Crowd measurement and spending in the city

The City of Ghent uses data analysis to gain insight into:

• crowds and visitor origin
• spending (aggregated payment data)

3) Crowds in the core shopping area 9000 Ghent and spending

The page explains how the measurements are built:

• Crowds: based on mobile phones on the Proximus network. The analysis is done at the level of cell towers using anonymous and aggregated data from groups of more than 30 people.
• Spending: based on payment data from Worldline (including credit cards and the most common debit/credit methods such as Bancontact and Payconiq).

When is this relevant for entrepreneurs?

• If you want to support a location choice or neighbourhood analysis (pedestrian flows / footfall).
• If you want to estimate which periods see peaks or dips in the core shopping area.
• If you are looking for an official / policy-data source for a dossier (e.g., a business plan).

Important notes

• These are aggregated measurements, not individual tracking.
• The methodology depends on the data sources used (Proximus/Worldline) and on how the data is anonymised/aggregated.

Source

• https://stad.gent/nl/ondernemen/nieuws-evenementen/gentse-handel-en-horeca-cijfers