MSA audiences continue to show positive growth across 2023, with March audiences up +4% year on year and reaching an average weekly level of 6 million for the first time this year.

March remained +2% vs benchmark 2019 levels.

Despite poor British weather continuing and even with train strikes largely resolved, audiences continued to use motorways and motorway service areas in huge numbers. For direct comparison, a similar number of visits were made to MSAs in a week as were made to Heathrow Airport in the whole of the month of March.

Across Q1, MSA audiences reached 40 million visits, and were +6% vs 2022 levels, and up an impressive +3.4% vs 2019.

Q1 audiences largely comprise business and commuter audiences, showing the effects of a hybrid working culture and a vibrant SME/business sector in the face of economic challenges. February Half Term leisure audiences – up 3% year on year and topping 6 million per week – showed that leisure audiences are also continuing to use MSAs in significant numbers. As we enter a period characterised by strong leisure audiences generating MSA Moments, we would expect those numbers to continue to rise.