High Street footfall up 4.4% over the bank holiday weekend
High streets received a welcome boost over the bank holiday weekend with footfall on high streets across the country rising by 4.4% year-on-year.
Figures issued by retail intelligence specialist Springboard show that Saturday was the strongest day as families went out in force on the first day of the school half term holiday.
Coastal and historic towns were the favoured destinations with their respective footfalls surging by 14.1% and 13% on the day. Sunday’s showers led to a 1.7% dip in footfall across high streets, but this was followed by 6.7% growth on Monday with regional cities seeing an increase of 20.9% year-on-year.
In contrast, footfall in retail parks was down every day over the weekend resulting in an overall drop of 4.2%.
Similarly, footfall in UK shopping centres dropped every day over the weekend to end up 3.1% down over the three day period.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “As UK schools’ summer half term begins at a time when consumer confidence is at a high, families were confidently out in force across UK high streets over the weekend, bringing a welcome boost to what has been a difficult start to the year for these destinations.
“Coastal and historic towns proved popular as the sun shone over the bank holiday, resulting in a decline in shopping centres and interestingly retail parks that to date have been the leaders.”
