Beautiful people 3954533

Footfall rising week-on-week but remains more than 50% lower than last year

Reopening of pubs and restaurants brings people back to high streets, but retail parks and shopping centres are slower to build traffic.

Footfall across all retail destinations rose by 9% in England on Saturday and 16.3% on Sunday compared to the same days a week ago.

High streets saw the biggest rise, of 19.6% on Saturday and 48.9% on Sunday, retail experts Springboard reveals, as bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen after the ruinous, un-targeted, lock down.

London saw the fastest rise in footfall, up 26% on Saturday and by over 40% on Sunday.

The greatest rise of all was in post-5pm footfall, which rose by 62.8% on Sunday.

As consumers enjoyed the reopening of hospitality and leisure, it was clear to see that retail trading was less of a priority in England. In shopping centres, where there is a limited offering of restaurants and venues with alcohol permits, the rise was just 6% on Saturday and 10.7% on Sunday.

In retail parks, where the hospitality offering is even more limited, footfall declined on both Saturday and Sunday.

In Scotland, footfall rose significantly which was a result of the easing of travel restrictions and the opening of stores with high street frontages; more than doubling from the week before in high streets on Saturday (+102.7%) and +81.9% higher from the week before on Sunday.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard commented: “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.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE DETAILED SPRINGBOARD DATA SET

Join the Conversation

1 Comment

  1. I’m surprised even as a central London resident that footfall isn’t lower at all… Everyone is proceeding cautiously, uncertainty of jobs reflects the ability to spend or not. Nice to see watch outlets in operation once again!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *