High street footfall boosted by hospitality reopenings
New figures have shown that footfall in England’s high streets rose by 19.6% on Saturday as people headed out to visit newly reopened hospitality and leisure venues.
The data from Springboard reveals there was an even bigger uplift on Sunday when footfall increased by 28.3% from the week before.
Footfall across England after 5pm climbed by 17.8% on Saturday and by 36.5% on Sunday. The high street performed particularly well in the period with uplifts of 35.8% on Saturday evening and 48.9% on Sunday due to there being more pubs and restaurants there.
However, there was a more modest rise in shopping centres where footfall increased by 6% on Saturday and 10.7% on Sunday.
Meanwhile, retail parks experienced a decline on both days with footfall down by 7.6% and 3.6% respectively on Saturday and Sunday.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard said: “Despite what are positive signs for the hospitality industry on the first weekend of reopening, it is essential to recognise that footfall remains at around half of the 2019 level, with a decline of 57.7% across all destinations in England on Saturday, and 53.4% on Sunday. As the industry takes small steps in reopening post pandemic, we recognise there is still a long way to go before the industry returns to normality.”
