Bank holiday sun boosts UK footfall

Footfall across UK retail destinations rose by 6.7 percent last week from the week before, boosted by sunny weather over the bank holiday weekend, new data shows.

Shoppers made the most of the bank holiday weekend, with an average increase over Thursday and Friday of 20.6 percent, according to the latest figures by Springboard.

Footfall rose by a relatively modest 4.4 percent on Saturday, but on bank holiday Sunday increased by 25 percent - and by 47.4 percent in UK high streets.

In Central London footfall rose by 17 percent last week from the week before, a larger rise than in any other high street type except from coastal towns where it rose by 18.2 percent.

In larger cities outside London, footfall rose by 9.2 percent, by 9.8 percent in market towns and by 8.1 percent in Outer London.

Despite the uplift, footfall remained 26.8 percent lower than 2019’s pre-Covid levels.

“Despite rain continuing to persist at the beginning of last week, footfall in UK retail destinations rose from the week before, with the increase also being far greater than in the past five weeks,” said Springboard’s insights director Diane Wehrle in a statement.

“It was apparent that shoppers intended to make the most of the bank holiday weekend - and the good weather that was forecast - as footfall rose by substantially more on Thursday and Friday than earlier in the week.”