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Bank holiday boosts footfall on UK high streets

By Danielle Wightman-Stone

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UK high streets received a welcome boost over the bank holiday weekend with footfall increasing across the country by 4.4 percent year-on-year, boosted by visits to coastal and historic towns.

Figures released by retail intelligence specialist Springboard showed that coastal and historic towns were the clear favourite destination, with those areas of the UK seeing a 14.1 percent and 13 percent increase on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was the strongest day, helped by the bright weather, while Sunday dipped down 1.7 percent, but this was followed by 6.7 percent grown on bank holiday Monday, with regional cities seeing an increase of 20.9 percent year-on-year.

In contrast, footfall in retail parks was down every day over the weekend resulting in an overall drop of 4.2 percent. Similarly, footfall in UK shopping centres dropped every day over the weekend, down by 3.1 percent 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."

Springboard