Footfall declines as retail destinations suffer post Bank Holiday
New figures have revealed that footfall in UK retail destinations dropped by 6.7% last week from the previous seven-day period as people returned to working from home after the half term break.
The data from Springboard shows that this compares to a rise of 11.6% in the prior week.
High streets lost around half of the gain made in the week before with a decline of 9% while shopping centres and retail parks saw respective falls of 7.5% and 0.9%.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “UK retail destinations suffered post Bank Holiday blues last week, with footfall dropping back by around half of the uplift recorded in the week before, when the school half term holiday coincided with the spring bank holiday and amazing weather.”
Footfall dropped across all type of high street, but the biggest declines were seen in coastal and historic towns where footfall fell by a respective 19% and 13.1%. In contrast, footfall in market towns and in outer London dipped by just 2% and 2.6% respectively.
In comparison to the same period in 2019, footfall across all UK retail destinations last week was 18.4% down. This compares to a decline of 14.5% in the previous week.
Looking ahead, Wehrle added: “With the removal of restrictions set to be delayed by as much as a month, footfall is not likely to strengthen significantly over the next four weeks. However, it should receive a huge boost in the second half of July, particularly as this coincides with the start of the school summer break.”
