Bank holiday boosts footfall by 10.5% on Sunday

Footfall on Sunday (27 August) was +10.5% higher than the week before, rising in all three destination types; by +9% in high streets, by +9.8% in retail parks and by +14.2% in shopping centres thanks to bank holiday Monday.

According to the latest data from MRI Springboard, whilst footfall rose on Sunday, it was lower than the same day in 2022 reflecting the volume of overseas holidays taken over the bank holiday.

Conversely, Saturday and Monday footfall was also lower than on the same days in the week before, down -0.2% and -7.6% respectively.

Diane Wehrle, insights director at MRI Springboard, said: “Sunday was clearly the peak day of the bank holiday weekend for UK retail destinations in terms of the uplift in footfall; footfall on Sunday was +10.5% higher than the week before, whilst on both Saturday and Monday footfall was lower than on the same days in the week before.

“…The opportunity afforded by the bank holiday weekend to make trips out on Sunday was demonstrated in significant uplifts in footfall from the week before in both coastal and historic towns (+22.2% and +20.5%). At the same time, however, many shoppers also stayed local with a rise in footfall from the previous Sunday of +12.9% in market towns.”

She added: “Whilst footfall rose on Sunday from the week before in coastal and historic towns, it was lower than the same day in 2022, reflecting the volume of overseas holidays taken over the bank holiday. In contrast, in Central London footfall was higher on Bank holiday Sunday and Monday then on the same days last year (+10.4% and +9%), demonstrating the increase in overseas visitors to the capital.

“The popularity of Sunday for trips out was demonstrated by the fact that footfall in high streets was +1.3% higher than in 2019 on that day but lower than in 2019 across the other two key destination types (-10.7% in retail parks and -14.6% in shopping centres).”