What's Hot And What's Not For Stag & Hens

London and Bournemouth are the most popular destinations for UK hen and stags, a survey has revealed.

Redseven polled over 2,400 stag and hens from all over the country, in late 2011, to find out what’s hot and what’s not, how many of people were flirting away, which celebrities offered inspiration and just how much was spending on the celebration, together with a whole host of other interesting stats.

Top hen and stag destinations

London remained the most popular hen destination in 2011 followed by Brighton, Marbella, Bournemouth and Albufeira. Meanwhile, the renowned party town of Bournemouth was voted the most popular destination by hen and stag parties, followed by Brighton, Riga, Newcastle and Nottingham.

Home or away?

Stags are more likely to go abroad than hens, but it’s a popular choice for both. 29% of hens and 36% of stags who took part in the survey partied overseas in 2011.

When do hens and stags book and when do they go?

New Year brings new engagements and is the time to get organised for many brides and grooms. Over a third of all respondents said that they booked their hen or stag weekend between January and March with more respondents stating that they booked in January than any other month. According to the survey, the most popular months for travel are, not surprisingly, the early

summer months, with around half of all weekends taken between May – July.

Alcohol is by far the biggest expense, but also the biggest concern

Stags claimed to spend a massive £168 per person on alcohol during the course of a stag weekend, £100 more than they spent on food! Hens were slightly more restrained, but still spent £91pp on alcohol. Ironically, when asked what people were most concerned about beforehand, 42% of hens and 53% of stags were fairly or very worried about being ill from drinking too

much alcohol.

This compared to only 3% of hens and 14% of stags worried about being tempted to cheat, and 34% of hens and 26% of stags worried about losing a member of their party during the weekend.


Brides like to be in control/Stags leave it to the best man

If you think that the bride loves to be in control then you’d be right. 25% of the hens surveyed were reluctant to loosen the reins and said that, they organised their own hen weekend. This compares to less than 15% of stags, who go for the stress free option and tend to leave that to the best man.

Girls love to spoil their friends

Girls love to pamper their brides and create special moments and surprises. In 44% of cases the hen party claimed that the destination was kept a secret from the hen (compared to only 14% of stag weekends), and the girls claimed to have spent much more on gifts (£16.65 per person) and fancy dress (£16.40) than the stags (£5.93 and £8.87 respectively).

What’s important to hen and stag weekend customers?

The survey revealed that hen parties are more concerned with good value for money while stag parties opt for convenience and a stress free stag weekend.

Over 70% of hen party members said that good value for money and individual payments and instalments were very important when choosing a hen weekend. In contrast, 50% of stag party members said that easy to use itineraries and pre-arranged activities were very important, and nearly 60% said that removing the stress and hassle of having to organise their own stag weekend was very important.

Flirting, cheating, lap dancers? What happens on the weekend?

It seems that hen and stag weekends have an unfair reputation when it comes to sexual exploits. Hen and stag weekends are traditional rites of passage and far more about having fun with your friends, than anything else.

Although strip clubs remain popular, these are a bit of fun and also enjoyed by hen parties. 15% of hens claimed to have visited a strip club and even admitted to have spent an average of £4 per person on lapdances and strippers. Unsurprisingly, the figures were much higher amongst the men, with 61% having visited a strip club, and claiming to have spent an average

of £49pp in the clubs.

Redseven asked stag and hen parties (including the stag and hen) what they got up to on their weekends. 21% of hens and 39% of stags said they had a harmless flirtation, and only 4.6% of hens and 8.6% of stags admitted to sharing a kiss. None of the hens who took part in the survey and only 3% of stags admitted to ‘going all the way’ with anyone. Considering that 22%

of all respondents were single at the time of the weekend, there is nothing alarming in these figures. Of course, although the survey was anonymous, they can not guarantee honesty.

Overwhelmingly, though, both hens (74%) and stags (49%) claimed they were most interested in just ‘having fun with my friends’.

Most popular celebrity hen and stag weekends

Wayne and Coleen Rooney may have had their fair share of mishaps but the celebrity couple made no mistakes when it came to celebrating their last nights of freedom. When asked ‘which celebrity hen or stag night do you most wish you had been at?’, an overwhelming 62% of hen parties opted for Coleen’s and 34% of stag parties opted for Wayne’s.

Wayne spent his stag weekend in Ibiza on a luxury yacht at his own VIP party and Coleen jetted off to Miami to soak up the rays with champagne by the pool.

Predictions for 2012

Redseven makes a number of predictions for 2012 in the report. Having seen a 57% increase in enquiries for London in the last three months of 2011, they predict that London’s Olympic year will be huge for both hens and stags. TV shows and films set in last century such as Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife, Birdsong and The Great Gatsby, along with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic, will further fuel hens’ demand for vintage makeovers and dance classes. The industry will remain strong, as traditions such as hen and stag weekends continue to be upheld, despite other areas where people are cutting back in response to the economic downtown.

(GK)

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