A Summary of Footfall Trends During Evening/Night-Time Hours in 2011

Outlined below is a summary of footfall trends in 2011 during night time hours, as recorded by the ATCM-Springboard Night Time Economy Index (NTEI). The summary sets out trends between January and December 2011, and also the change in footfall that occurred annually between 2010 and 2011.

The trend in footfall during night time hours in 2011 was similar to that for previous years, ie. a steady increase each month from January until July, and then a decline from August to December.  

The increase in footfall from month to month up to July was slightly greater in 2011 than in previous years (+42% in 2011 compared with +36% between 2008 and 2010), but the drop in footfall in the latter half of the year was at the same level (-5%). This suggests that footfall levels in 2011 were more favourable than those in earlier years, which is reinforced by the year on year % change in footfall set out below.

The trend in footfall during night time hours during 2011 varied by type of town. 

In addition to the monitoring footfall across the UK as a whole, the NTEI tracks footfall across three key benchmarks – regional cities, coastal towns and historic towns – and reveals that coastal towns far outperformed both regional cities and historic towns in terms of the growth in footfall during the year. 

However, despite footfall virtually doubling in Coastal Towns between January and July, footfall declined noticeably in the latter half of the year, falling by 16% between August and December compared with a fall of just 5% nationally.  This drop in footfall towards the end of the year differs from the trend in regional cities which recorded an upward trend throughout the year, and in fact is the only type of town to experience a growth in footfall between August and December.

Examination of the annual change in footfall is helpful in understanding longer term trends.  By reference to the average annual % change in footfall that has occurred since 2008, it can be seen that footfall during night time hours - whilst initially recording a greater decline than that over 24 hours - has recovered more quickly. 

In 2009 and 2010, the declines in footfall during night time hours were significantly lower than those over 24 hours.  And in 2011, footfall during night time hours increased by 2% compared with a continued decline in footfall over the 24 hour period of 1.1%.

Reference to the annual change in each quarter during 2011 further demonstrates that footfall trends during night time hours are stronger than those across 24 hours.  In three of the four quarters, footfall increased annually during night time hours, with just a modest decline in footfall of -0.3% being recorded in the first quarter of the year. 

By the fourth quarter, footfall during night time hours increased by 5.7% from the same quarter in 2010 - a significant increase both from the annual change of +1.5% recorded in the third quarter and the -0.1% annual change in the fourth quarter recorded across 24 hours.