// A warm August bank holiday weekend helped boost footfall by 5.3% across all UK retail destinations over Saturday and Sunday
// However retail parks saw footfall slightly behind last week (-0.8%)
The warm and sunny August Bank holiday has boosted UK footfall figures according to Springboard.
Looking at the weekend activity in more detail, Springboard’s figures showed a UK-wide rise of 5.4% on Saturday and 5.3% on Sunday, but a 6.4% drop on Monday.
High streets saw an average increase of 8.7% in footfall over Saturday and Sunday, though Brits used bank holiday Monday to travel or stay home, with footfall slipping across UK destinations on the final day.
While footfall was higher over the weekend than a week earlier it remains generally lower than on the same dates pre-Covid in 2019.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
Coastal towns, historic towns and market towns all saw spikes in footfall, with coastal towns particularly benefitting on Sunday, as footfall was up 24.3% on the previous week.
Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle said “The favourable weather over the bank holiday encouraged shoppers to visit UK retail destinations. High streets benefited from the warm and sunny weather, and were the winners with footfall 8% higher than the week before on Saturday and 9.4% higher on Sunday.
But she added that: “Monday appeared to be a day for consumers to either travel or to stay home, with a drop in footfall from the previous week across all UK destinations. The drop in activity on Monday was driven by high streets and shopping centres where footfall declined from the week before by 10.1% and 11.5% respectively. However, footfall in retail parks rose by 6.8% as shoppers replenished food and groceries for the week ahead.”
She added that across the different types of high streets, the clear winners were those towns that are attractive to visitors, with a strong uplift on Saturday and Sunday in coastal and historic towns, and also in market towns and in regional cities outside of London across the UK.
On Sunday footfall in coastal towns was 24.3% higher than the previous week and 17.7% higher in historic towns.
Shoppers also visited city centres across the UK over the weekend, with an average rise in footfall of 10.4% over Saturday and Sunday, versus just 3.1% in Central London.
