Footfall across UK retail destinations rose by +11.1% last week from the week before, according to latest data from retail experts Springboard.
High streets and shopping centres benefited the most with rises of +12.1% and +15.2%, but footfall also rose by +4.7% in retail parks.
The boost in footfall meant that the gap from 2019 narrowed to -10.9% across all retail destinations from -15.3% last week, with footfall +34.8% higher than in the same week in 2020.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard commented: “The October school half term holiday last week delivered a noticeable boost to footfall across UK retail destinations, with an increase in activity from the week before across all three key destination types – the largest since the week before the late May bank holiday – and double digit rises in both high streets and shopping centres.
“Footfall rose from the previous week on every day last week, with the largest increases occurring over the five days from Monday to Friday. All types of high street benefited, but consumers clearly took the opportunity to travel further afield as the increases in footfall in coastal towns, historic town, Central London and regional cities outside of the capital were at least twice that in market towns.
“There were noticeable increases in footfall throughout the day from 11am onwards last week, and consumers were clearly taking the opportunity of the half term break to go out in the evening as the rise in high street footfall post 5pm was also significant.”
