Retail footfall boosted by school summer holidays
Footfall in UK retail destinations edged up 1.4% last week from the prior seven day period following a rise of 2.4% the week before last.
According to figures from retail specialist Springboard. high streets fared the best with an uplift of 2.6% followed by shopping centres which saw a more modest increase of 1%. In contrast, footfall in retail parks dipped by 0.6%.
While footfall in coastal towns rose by 2.4%, the increase in Central London was much bigger at 6.1% as people took the opportunity to visit the capital and shopping destinations further afield during the school summer holidays. Market towns also experienced an uplift at 2.2% although footfall in regional cities rose by just 0.7%.
The figures meant that the gap in footfall from 2019 continued to narrow and last week stood at -20.1% across all retail destinations. Despite a slight dip from the week before, footfall in retail parks was only 1.9% below the 2019 level compared to 2.7% in the week before last.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “With the school summer holiday period in full swing, footfall across UK retail destinations continued to improve last week. In overall terms it was a modest uplift from the week before, however, footfall rose in high streets for the fifth consecutive week for the first time since June 2020 suggesting an underlying strengthening of customer activity.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
