The number of stag and hen bookings in ‘party capital’ York has more than DOUBLED since 2019, new industry data reveals.

According to figures released by website Last Night of Freedom, which helps organise stag and hen dos, bookings to York were up by more than 100 per cent this year compared to 2019 - the last period in which figures weren’t skewed by Covid restrictions.

York is spearheading a Yorkshire surge in stag and hen bookings – with bookings to Leeds rising by 55 per cent during the past 12 months, and jaunts to Sheffield up by 25 per cent.

Last Night of Freedom puts York’s continuing surge in popularity as a ‘party capital’ down to a combination of the cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine.

These have pushed-up demand for ‘stay at home’ stag and hen parties, with groups increasingly shunning expensive trips abroad, the website says.

“The vast majority of our bookings are now groups staying in Britain, and of the locations that have benefited, Yorkshire’s arguably enjoyed the biggest stag and hen boom this year,” said Last Night of Freedom MD Matt Mavir.

Mr Mavir insists it is good news for York’s economy.

He estimates stag and hen bookings bring between £5-10m into York’s economy each year, propping up hundreds of jobs in hospitality and leisure.

And he says that's only going to increase.

"We are already seeing a big demand across the North from groups booking for 2023,” he said.

York has exploded in popularity recently, especially with hens, and it is now Last Night of Freedom’s sixth biggest hen party destination, he added.

“We take more bookings there than Barcelona, Budapest, Amsterdam – everywhere outside the UK bar Dublin. In the space of a few years, it has well and truly cemented itself as one of Europe’s hen party capitals.

“Clearly the cost-of-living crisis is a factor. Money is on everyone’s minds, and a couple of nights in Yorkshire is going to be cheaper than flying into Barcelona for the weekend.

“But York is a hen’s paradise – a beautiful, Instagrammable city packed with independent cocktail bars and restaurants.”

But while stag and hen parties undoubtedly bring money into the city’s economy,  they are bitterly divisive.

Many York people have spoken of the city centre becoming almost a ‘no-go’ zone for families at the weekends, because of the number of drunken groups staggering about.

York MP Rachael Maskell recently proposd setting up European-style 'stag and hen do zones’ – possibly near the railway station – in an attempt to keep drunken groups away from the city centre itself.

Responding to the news that stag and hen bookings in York had more than doubled since 2019, she said: “Every day, local residents are telling me of their negative experiences of being in the city centre in the early evenings or the weekend.

“York is a very special city, and we have all had enough of people turning our city into a party venue.

“The rise in York as a party destination is spilling over into our neighbourhoods with more and more holiday lets, and in some cases, houses being advertised specifically as ‘party houses’."