Springboard records annual falls across all of the UK
Not surprisingly, with the week comprising Sunday and Monday of the Whitsun Bank Holiday footfall rose by +2.1 per cent from the week before, although this wasn’t an exceptional result as footfall rose by +1.9 per cent in the same week last year. More significantly, footfall declined from last year by -3.6 per cent compared with a year on year rise of +1.2 per cent in the same week in 2017. Footfall declined on six of the seven days last week, and by as much as -7 per cent on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Not only did the annual drop in footfall occur on virtually every day, but also across all geographies. And even more significant was the fact that the universal decline in footfall across geographies occurred in all three destination types. The sole increase in footfall took place in Northern Ireland’s high streets, where footfall rose annually by +8 per cent.
Focusing closely on the Bank Holiday reveals that footfall across the UK declined annually by -1.7 per cent over Sunday and Monday whilst remaining flat over the year on Saturday. Unusually, footfall rose in high streets on Sunday and Monday by +1.9 per cent, but declined in both retail parks and shopping centres. Indeed, shopping centres recorded significant drops in footfall on both Sunday and Monday; -4.5 per cent on Sunday and -9.2 per cent on Monday. The impact on shopping centres is likely to be a result of the favourable weather encouraging shoppers towards external locations, but the drop in retail parks was unexpected given the rise in footfall on all three bank holiday days last year.
