Springboard reports Easter boost for pedestrian traffic
The school holiday period had a positive impact on footfall in UK retail destinations last week, with a rise of +5.8% from the week before and an increase of +1.7% over the year. All three destination types saw footfall rise over the week, increasing by +6.7% in high streets and +5.9% in shopping centres. Somewhat unexpectedly, the uplift in retail parks was more modest at +3.8%. On an annual basis, however, retail parks led the charge with a rise in footfall of +3.3%, although high streets followed closely behind with a year on year increase of +2.2%. Footfall in shopping centres declined by -1.0% year on year.
Further good news is that footfall rose over the week in all UK geographies – and by more than +5.0% in five areas – and the annual change was also largely positive, declining only marginally in three areas (by -0.3% in both the South West and Wales and by -1.1% in the South East).
Of the three destination types, high streets were the strongest in footfall terms, with week on week increases across all geographies (of more than +5.0% in eight areas) in addition to annual rises in all areas with the exception of the South East where footfall dropped by -2.9%. The school holiday had a positive impact on the Monday to Friday period, with increases on six of the seven days compared with the same days in the previous week, and double digit rises on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
