New figures have shown that UK retail footfall rose by 11.6% last week on the previous seven day period as retail destinations benefited from people taking holidays in the UK during half term.
The data from retail specialist Springboard reveals that footfall in high streets jumped by 17.4% while shopping centres and retail parks saw respective uplifts of 8.7% and 2.3%.
In coastal and historic town centres, the increase in footfall was significantly greater at 37.1% and 24.8% respectively.
Meanwhile, large city centres also performed well with a rise of 23.8% in Central London and 19.3% in city centres elsewhere in the UK. This meant that the gap in footfall from 2019 narrowed to -39.5% in Central London and just -12.9% in regional cities across the UK.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “A combination of the late May bank holiday, incredible weather and the school half term holiday had a hugely beneficial effect on customer activity in UK retail destinations last week; it not only led to the greatest weekly increase in footfall since the reopening of non-essential retail in April, but also the most modest annual decline since the start of the pandemic. Inevitably visitors wanted to be outside to enjoy the weather, so by far the greatest benefit was seen by high streets, where the rise in footfall from the week before was double that in shopping centres, and eight times that in retail parks.
“Whilst the attraction of coastal and historic towns to visitors meant they benefited the most last week, there was still a significant rise in footfall in Central London and in other regional cities across the UK, whilst the most modest increases once again occurred in more local high streets.”
