// Footfall across the UK rises as the school summer holiday period goes into full swing
// Coastal towns saw footfall increase by 2.4% while Central London jumped 6.1%
Footfall in UK retail destinations rose by 1.4 per cent last week from the prior seven day period following a rise of 2.4 per cent the week before last as the school summer holiday period begun.
According to figures from retail specialist Springboard, high streets fared the best with an uplift of 2.6 per cent followed by shopping centres which saw a more modest increase of 1 per cent.
However footfall in retail parks dipped by 0.6 per cent according to the latest data.
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Footfall in coastal towns rose by 2.4 per cent, while Central London saw a jump in footfall of 6.1 per cent as Brits took the opportunity to visit the capital and shopping destinations during the school summer holidays.
In market towns footfall also rose by 2.2 per cent, reflecting the benefit of working from home to local high streets, while in regional cities outside of the capital footfall rose by just 0.7 per cent.
The figures meant that the gap in footfall from 2019 continued to narrow and last week stood at 20.1 per cent across all retail destinations.
Despite a slight dip from the week before, footfall in retail parks was just 1.9 per cent below the 2019 level, versus 2.7 per cent in the previous week.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “With the school summer holiday period in full swing, footfall across UK retail destinations continued to improve last week,”
“In overall terms it was a modest uplift from the week before, however, footfall rose in high streets for the fifth consecutive week for the first time since June 2020 suggesting an underlying strengthening of customer activity.”
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