Springboard register uplift in pedestrian traffic
The first full week of the school summer holiday brought some positive news for retail destinations with an +1.1% week on week increase in footfall; a stronger performance than last year when footfall remained flat from the week before. As we have come to expect, footfall declined annually, but the drop of -1.7%, was nearly double the rate of year on year decline in 2018 when footfall dropped by -1.0% from the same week in 2017.
Footfall in both high streets and shopping centres rose from the week before (by +1.3% and +2.5%) while declining marginally by -0.9% in retail parks. High streets were supported by coastal towns, where footfall rose by +6.8% from the previous week. On an annual basis, however, the results were juxtaposed, with drops of more than -2.0% in both high streets and shopping centres whilst footfall in retail parks stayed level with 2018.
In the first half of the week the results from day to day were erratic, declining from the week before on both Sunday and Tuesday but increasing on Monday. However, from Wednesday onwards footfall rose on each day from the week before, averaging +2.7% over the four days.
Geographically, the rise in footfall from the week before was universal with the largest uplifts in the devolved nations where footfall rose by +3.5% in Scotland, +2.9% in Wales and +4.4% in Northern Ireland. Annually, however, across all destinations footfall declined in every area apart from in Northern Ireland where it rose marginally by +0.1%.
