London and the South East have been largely responsible for a promising UK-wide 4.1% increase in retail footfall in the last week alone.
However, data shows that London high streets still have a long way to go, with footfall down a massive 61.2% compared to the same period last year.
This comes via bricks-and-mortar retail data expert Springboard, which showed 6.8% and 7.1% jumps in footfall in London and the South East respectively.
The 4% increase during the week beginning 17 August was over four times greater than the 0.8% change in the previous week.
It was also over twice as great as the increase in the same week last year, which was only 1.8%.
Shopping centres around the country made the greatest progress with a 7.1% bump in the number of customers.
High streets and retail parks saw increases of 3.2% and 2.7% respectively.
Retail park footfall is only 10.6% lower than the same period last year, however, while shopping centres performed 32.4% worse. The high street outlook was even bleaker, however, at -39.1%.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, commented: “It seems that the increased quarantine measures imposed last week on a number of overseas destinations are having a positive impact on UK footfall.
“Footfall in UK retail destinations last week not only rose on a week-on-week basis, but the uplift was more than four times as large as the week before, and two and a half times as large as the same week last year.
“The outcome is a further incremental recovery in footfall compared with 2019, and the sixteenth consecutive week in which the annual decline has lessened which offers a glimmer of hope for retailers.”
