Month: January 2026

The start of the year is always a good time to look at the ‘health of the high street’ and see how Bury St Edmunds town centre is faring against the bigger economic picture. While the weather may be grey and gloomy, I’m pleased to report that Bury St Edmunds has a brighter outlook than most UK market towns.

It’s always good to see new businesses opening up – whether that’s new to the town or relocating within the town. Recently Taco Bell, Adnams, Trespass and Play Café have all opened and in the pipeline we have dental practices, a brewery bar and a coffee shop. I understand that some of our larger vacant units may soon be in new ownership so I’m hopeful this will lead to new tenants in due course too. The number of empty units continues to fall and currently stands at 5.2% – the national average is just over 13%.

Footfall has remained steady too – we saw a negligible change in 2025 to the previous year, down just 0.2% – again comparing very favourably to other town centres nationally and in the East of England. It does appear that people looking to shop and socialise like to visit Bury St Edmunds and on behalf of all our businesses I’d like to thank everyone who supports our town centre in what we know are still challenging times for businesses and households alike.

Something that really does help our town centre is the Bury St Edmunds Gift Card. It’s an initiative that we introduced just over five years ago to encourage people to ‘Shop Local’ after the pandemic and it’s gone from strength to strength. It can now be spent in 85 BID member businesses in the town centre and since its launch, cards to the value of well over £200k have been purchased – money that has been locked into our local economy.

Among the places accepting our gift card are restaurants, cafes and pubs – hardly surprising given that Bury St Edmunds is Suffolk’s foodie capital. A great success of 2025 was the Food and Drink Tours that we launched in partnership with the town’s Tour Guides. This two and a half hour food and drink excursion works with 15 town centre businesses to offer a six-stop walking tour with tasters at each one and the chance to learn more about the stories behind their buildings and the history of the town – which, while famous over the years for brewing, was also known for Abbots’ feasts and much more in years gone by.

Of course this is a time for looking forward too. Here at Our Bury St Edmunds BID we are planning our programme of events for 2026 to encourage more people to visit the town centre. We’ll be announcing details of some of these very soon.

Tourism in Bury St Edmunds has seen another bumper year as the historic town grew the value of tourism to the local economy by £4.6million in two years, latest figures have revealed.

The latest 2024 tourism figures from independent research, carried out by Destination Research and commissioned annually by West Suffolk Council, show the value of the town’s tourism economy rose in 2024 to a new record-breaking high of £55.9million.

The number of staying trips, staying nights, total staying spend, total day trip spend, total trip spend are all up on 2022 figures – meeting Our Bury St Edmunds BID’s key aims to drive more visitors, overnight stays and greater visitor spend through marketing via its Bury St Edmunds and Beyond tourism brand.

Key highlights:
• The number of staying trips has risen from 63,000 to 71,000
• Staying nights have risen from 226,000 to 286,000
• Total staying spend is now £15.3 million, a rise from £12.9 million in 2022
• Total day trip spend has risen from £25.4 million to £26.1 million
• Total trip spend has risen from £39.5 million to £42.9 million

The value of tourism to the local economy has risen by £8.7million since the Bury St Edmunds and Beyond brand launched in 2017.

Our Bury St Edmunds BID recently won the Best Heritage Destination Guide 2025 for its Bury St Edmunds and Beyond tourism brand in the Best Getaways Awards. The awards recognise excellence across all areas of tourism – from boutique hotels and glamping sites to local tour operators, cultural gems, and destination marketing teams.

Mark Cordell, CEO of Our Bury St Edmunds BID, said: “We are delighted with the report published today which shows that the value of tourism in Bury St Edmunds to the local economy has grown from £51.3million to £55.9million in just two years and by £8.7million since we launched the tourism brand in 2017.

“The statistics show that stays are up and visitor spending is rising — fantastic news for our tourism businesses and the town centre. But we’re not slowing down; we’re building on this momentum with a digital marketing campaign running until the end of March to raise awareness of Bury St Edmunds as the foodie capital of Suffolk, a Christmas stays campaign launching in November, and a cycling breaks campaign debuting in spring.”

Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, founded in 2017, is the official tourism brand for Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding area and part of Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District.

It promotes the town through marketing campaigns, fresh and engaging content, social media, PR and works closely with other nearby destinations to drive visitors to its website to showcase all that Bury St Edmunds and surrounding area has to offer. The marketing activity is funded by BID members, Bury St Edmunds Town Council, Gough Hotels and St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Bury St Edmunds Food and Drink Tours will continue in 2026 with new dates announced this week.

Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides teamed up with businesses in the town centre to launch a new Food & Drink Tour in Suffolk’s Foodie Capital last year. The Tour Guides worked with Our Bury St Edmunds BID and BID member businesses on the new tour on selected Thursday afternoons from 2pm to 4.30pm.

77 visitors enjoyed the new attraction during 2025 which includes a two and a half-hour food and drink themed tour of the town stopping off at six local businesses to try bite-sized samples of food and drink, hearing about the business and the local history of the building and location.

With positive feedback from locals and visitors alike including excellent reviews on TripAdvisor, tour dates for 2026 are now available to book.

John Saunders, Marketing Officer, said: ““For local residents, the tours have increased awareness of the wonderful independent businesses to enjoy in Bury, with many saying they had not visited some venues before and now intend to return. We believe this will drive meaningful repeat business.

“For visitors, it has raised awareness of Bury as Suffolk’s foodie capital and we know many visitors return independently to make purchases after first discovering them on a tour.”

The tour takes you through the heart of Bury St Edmunds, offering visitors a taste of the town and a chance to discover Bury’s food and drink history, for example Cook’s Row, the Abbot’s feasts, and how a maltster almost destroyed the town. Along the way, guests enjoy bite sized samples of delicious food and drink and meet the people behind the town’s independent businesses.

Mark Cordell, CEO of Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District, said: “We are absolutely delighted with how the tours have developed under the Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides and with their continuation into 2026. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and the fact that visitors are returning to spend money with our independent businesses after taking part is a clear indicator of the tours’ success.”

The guides now work with 15 BID businesses on a rotating basis: Adnams, Beautiful Beers, Blend, Hopsters, Lotties, Marimba, Midgar Coffee, Nethergate Wines, No5 Angel Hill, Procopio’s Pantry, The Cheesehole, The Wine Cellar, Verve, Vespers, and Vino Gusto.
Tickets for the Bury St Edmunds Food and Drink Tour are £25. To book for 2026 visit the Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides website: www.burystedmundstourguides.org

2026 Bury St Edmunds Food and Drink Tours
22 January 
February 12 & 26
March 12 & 26
April 2, 16 & 30
May 21
June 4 & 18
July 2, 9, 16 & 23
August 6, 13, 20 & 27
September 10 & 17

Some of the wonderful reviews of the Food and Drink Tours:

“What a fantastic afternoon we had on our trip with John. History of the town was combined with meeting independent traders who were chatty & welcoming. Good mix of food and drink.

We managed to go back to 4 the next day. Exceeded our expectations.

Ps. Don’t eat too much prior to your visit.”

“The food tour was a fabulous experience. The local business owners we met were all very friendly and knowledgeable, it felt like we were given a real ‘insiders’ experience. Our guide was very personable and helped us all to gel as a group. We sampled some excellent food and will definitely be going back to the venues we visited. It was an invaluable overview of just some of the food venues Bury has to offer.”

“Our group had the most fantastic afternoon on the new Food and Drink Tour. It was so interesting, the food and drinks were delicious and so different. It was lovely to meet the owners and staff at the Bury St Edmunds independent businesses. Our guide Adrian was so knowledgeable about the town, giving us a great mix of history and anecdotes as we walked to each venue.

Thank you – we will all be recommending the tour to friends and family.”

Christmas shoppers in Bury St Edmunds have once again helped ensure the town enjoyed a busy end to the year.

Footfall in 2025, as calculated by the BID’s camera in Abbeygate Street, was just 0.2% less than last year. There were 4,607,125 activations of the camera and this slight decrease on 2024 compares favourably with market towns nationally and town centres in the East of England.

These figures were boosted during December, where every week, except the run up to Christmas Day, had more visitors to the town than in either of the previous two years. Plus, the numbers of international tourists during 2025 have boosted the town’s visiting shoppers. Over 100,000 visited from abroad during the year with the majority from the east coast of the USA.

Bury St Edmunds also continues to have very low vacant retail units at 5.2%, compared with the national average of 13%.

Just before Christmas, The Telegraph named Bury St Edmunds the fourth in its list of the best UK High Streets. It described the town as having “plenty of indie spirit” in relation to the numbers of independent businesses in the town centre.

Chief Executive of Our Bury St Edmunds BID, Mark Cordell said: “Footfall for 2025 was the same as 2024, which compares very favourably with the average for the UK and better than the average for East of England and all UK market towns. Bury St Edmunds also has the lowest number of vacant retail units that I have seen in 15 years.

“The national media would lead you to believe the High Street is in crisis but not here in Bury St Edmunds.

“It is true that businesses continue to face additional pressures and challenges, particularly with recent Government decisions which will again increase our businesses operational costs, but so far Bury St Edmunds continues to buck the national trend. We will continue to do all we can through the Our Bury St Edmund and Bury St Edmunds and Beyond tourism brands to ensure we encourage people to visit the town centre.”

The Our Bury St Edmunds footfall figures are calculated based on an entry point to the town on Abbeygate Street. They are compiled for the BID by MRI OnLocation. More information is available at www.ourburystedmunds.com.