According to retail experts Springboard, footfall during the period from Monday to Thursday leading up to Easter rose from the week before by an average of +15% with a rise of +21.9% on Thursday and +27.3% in UK high streets.
It marked the first Easter since 2019 without any social restrictions, meaning consumer activity was brought forward rather than people reserving shopping trips for the weekend. Across Easter weekend itself footfall dropped marginally by -0.1% versus the previous weekend.
Footfall across UK retail destinations rose by +5.8% on Good Friday from the week before, with a particularly huge increase in activity in coastal towns of +33.6%.
High streets saw a +10% increase versus the previous Friday and historic towns also experienced a rise in footfall of +15.8%, while in Central London footfall rose by 14.3% and by 14.5% in other large city centres across the UK.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, commented: “Two factors heavily influenced footfall activity in UK retail destinations over Easter this year; the first factor was the warm and sunny weather, and the second factor was that this the first Easter bank holiday weekend since 2019 with no Covid restrictions.”
She added: “The warm and sunny weather which made external attractions particularly attractive to consumers; high street footfall rose by +1.1% whilst in shopping centres – many of which are covered – footfall was -6.1% lower than over the same three days in the previous week.”
