Two years of the Love Bristol giftcard

Posted on: 26 Jun 2024

This month marks two years since the introduction of the Love Bristol Gift Card, now accepted at over 180 venues across the city.

 

The Love Bristol Gift Card is an initiative, implemented to support local businesses, that promotes a circular economy by ensuring that money spent on the gift card remains within the city – not unlike the idea behind the now-defunct ‘Bristol Pound’.

 

Since its launch in 2022, the Love Bristol Gift Card has seen sales totaling £111,260 (as of May 2024). Recent reports from the program's manager also show a continued rise in sales, with a notable increase from £14,709 to £20,392 between February and April – a nearly 40% jump. Introduced by the three central Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), the Love Bristol giftcard can be used at a variety of businesses, such as shops, restaurants, theatres, and music venues.

 

 

The Love Bristol giftcard has also been added as a purchase option on the group collecting platform GiftRound, allowing gift givers to collect contributions from friends, family, or colleagues towards a Love Bristol Gift Card. It's an ideal choice for leaving gifts, new babies, weddings, and the end of the school year — perfect for teacher gifts as the term ends, as with the school term approaching its end, the BIDs are encouraging school children to nominate their favourite educators for the national Town & City Gift Card Teacher of the Year competition, with a £250 gift card as the reward.

 

“The Love Bristol Gift Card is a great way to get people shopping in Bristol’s eclectic venues.” said Vicky Lee, head of the City Centre BID. “We would love to see a Bristol teacher win Teacher of the Year, so that we can celebrate both the amazing work that our schools do as well as the brilliant work of our city centre businesses.”

 

 

Steve Bluff, Head of Redcliffe & Temple BID, added, “The implementation of the Love Bristol Gift Card on GiftRound is a really great way to further the opportunities for people to buy the gift cards for special occasions, and we hope to see already fantastic sales numbers increase ever further to help us support our local venues this summer.”

You can buy a Love Bristol giftcard online here - and to vote on Teacher of the Year, head here.

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