In 2023, Princes Street, located in Edinburgh, accounted for an average of 1.65 million visitors a month, making it the high street with the highest average footfall in the United Kingdom that year. As might be expected, many of the busiest shopping streets were located in the capital cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London.

Retail footfall saw a decrease of 2.2 percent in December 2024 in the United Kingdom (UK), driven by shopping centers. Compared to the same month a year earlier, high streets saw a reduction in footfall of 2.7 percent.

Retail footfall in British highstreets bounced back from the pandemic-driven sluggish shopper numbers around January 2023. But despite the recovering numbers, high streets still struggled with diminishing visits and frequent fluctuations. In the most recently reported period in January 2025, there was an increase of 0.1 percent of visitors to UK high streets. February showed a small year-on-year increase in shopping centers, as well. Retail locations out of favor With more and more shoppers turning to the convenience of online shopping, the landscape of high street retailing is transforming as store closures are dealing many retail and leisure store categories hard blows. This was exacerberated by the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2023, there were over 10,000 store closures in the United Kingdom. Store closures before the pandemic Even before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit, UK retail sector had been going through what many have dubbed as "the retail apocalypse". Many retailers saw store closures and ensuing job losses a year before the pandemic. Among these, Poundland had the highest number of staff lay-offs resulting from store closures.

This statistic shows the leading mass-market shopping streets ranked by footfall in Europe in 2021. Of the prime shopping streets, Schildergasse, which is located in Cologne, Germany, was measured as having the highest footfall count, at approximately 77,200 pedestrians on the selected sample Saturday. Oxford Street, London, stood in second place that year, with approximately 72,700 pedestrians.

This statistic shows the average weekly footfall in Marks & Spencer stores in the United Kingdom, between financial year 2009/10 and the financial year 2022/23. In the financial year ending April 1, 2023 there was an average of 15 million weekly visits to Marks & Spencer stores in the UK.

Boundaries of High Streets as developed by the Regeneration team at the Greater London Authority. NOTE: these boundaries will be used when sharing data about High Street spend and footfall. They reflect the wider uses of High Streets including community, public and cultural, in addition to concentrations of retail units.

Retail companies need to know which events impact their demand, when similar events are coming up, and how significant these events will be - whether that’s how many people will be attending events around their locations or how severe an unscheduled event such as a severe storm is. This directly informs their inventory levels, workforce optimization, and pricing strategies. Events impact the strategies of brick and mortar stores or chains that will be capitalizing on increased footfall and need to make decisions based on an expected decrease in footfall. They also impact delivery-based retail that will need to update their fleet and warehousing strategies ahead of time.

Data also includes Predicted Event Spend, a dollar figure that reflects the predicted amount of retail, accommodation, and transportation spending in a specific area as a result of a major event. At the core of this figure sits our market leading global event coverage, predicted event attendance, local accommodation demand, aviation demand, third party data and more to give you greater geographical context of the scale of the economic impact an event will have.

Location: McDonald's, Times Square, New York City Visibility Window: 6-Months Historical Categories: community, concerts, conferences, expos, festivals, performing arts, sports, academic, daylight savings, observances, politics, public holidays, school holidays, airport delays, disasters, health warnings, severe weather, terror

Fields Included: - Title - Category - Labels - Description - Start date and time - End date and time - Predicted end time - Timezone - Country - Lat / Lon - Venue Name - Venue Address - Rank (PHQ Rank, Local Rank) - PHQ Attendance - Event status - Place Hierarchy - Created/updated timestamps - Predicted event spend total - Predicted event spend accommodation - Predicted event spend hospitality - Predicted event spend transportation

Polygon information: PredictHQ's polygons enable you to see the full area impacted by an event represented as a shape, because many types of events don't occur neatly at a point on a map. That means you will get a much more accurate picture of impact. Data samples including polygons are available upon request.

Data quality: PredictHQ's data quality is one of its key strengths: 1) We have developed a set of Quality Standards for Processing Demand Causal Factors (QSPD), which are used to define the criteria for high-quality event data. By following these standards, PredictHQ ensures that their data meets the highest levels of quality. 2) We use more than 450 data sources to collect event data, including public records, social media, and ticketing websites. 3) We have built thousands of machine learning models that standardize, verify, enrich, and rank every single event. 4) On average we process 28 million events and 422,000 entities every day 5) We track the quality of our data over time and make improvements as needed.

About PredictHQ: PredictHQ is the world’s first and only company that provides the missing context for the biggest external factor that impacts businesses demand – events. PredictHQ’s intelligent data of verified global events enables businesses to forecast shifts in demand from events to be able to adjust their inventory, make changes to labor, dynamically price and operate more efficiently. Think conferences, sports games, college graduations, floods, and more. PredictHQ brings all events into one place, combines it with world-first tools and intelligence to allow organizations to better predict and respond to changing customer demand created by events in an easy, reliable, and scalable way. We meet customers exactly where they are, ensuring they can access our data the way that suits them best.

Learn more about PredictHQ's real-world event data by visiting our Developer and Data Science Documentation: https://docs.predicthq.com/

Keywords: attended events, attendance, sports, festivals, expos, conferences, concerts, performing arts, community, polygon, consumer spending, predicted spend, location information, demand intelligence, financial data, venue location, accommodation, transportation, restaurant, demand intelligence, event intelligence, event categorisation, business insights, event tracking, historical event data, even impact analysis, event-driven decisions, predictive analytics, retail, shopping, weather, severe weather, historical weather

The coronavirus lockdown has resulted in a significant increase in residential location footfall in the United Kingdom, compared with a huge decline in workplace locations. London saw the highest increase in residential location tracking at 19 percent, as well as the largest decline in workplace activity at -62 percent. In all the major UK cities provided here, there has been a decline in workplace activity and an increase in residential activity, implying that the British public are adhering to the government's social distancing pleas.

This statistic shows the leading luxury and mixed mass-market to luxury shopping streets ranked by footfall in Europe in 2021. Of the prime luxury shopping streets, Regent Street in London, UK, was measured as having the highest footfall count, at nearly 57,000 pedestrians on the selected sample Saturday. Avenue des Champs Elysées, which is located in Paris, France ranked second with approximately 45,500 visitors.

Weekly data showing transactions from approximately 400 Pret A Manger stores around the UK. These are official statistics in development. Source: Pret a Manger

The Libraries, Museums and Cultural Activities industry's revenue is forecast to increase at a compound annual rate of 0.2% over the five years through 2024-25 to £3.4 billion, including an expected hike of 4.3% in 2024-25. Increased tourism into the UK in 2023, according to VisitBritain figures, has pushed up revenue for museums and art galleries due to tourists being a key driver of demand. Many of the largest companies continue to invest in projects to increase footfall in their venues. For example, the National Trust and The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds saw record levels of operating income and increased footfall in their venues following massive investments in 2023-24. At the same time, the industry is working harder to attract younger visitors through social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, boosting revenue. In the face of government cuts, many cultural institutions have had to diversify their income sources to survive, turning to public-private partnerships, crowdfunding and corporate sponsorships. For example, the British Museum secured a £50 million sponsorship deal with BP in December 2023. The industry's dependence on labour has led to rising wage costs. Despite relying heavily on volunteers and unpaid interns, libraries, museums and cultural sites still require a significant amount of paid staff. The cost-of-living crisis prompted many staff members to seek higher wages. In December 2024, security guards at major London museums, like the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, went on strike for increased pay, seeking £16 per hour to cover living expenses. Further strikes followed in January. This upwards pressure on wage costs is expected to drive profit down in 2024-25 Over the five years through 2029-30, revenue is anticipated to creep upwards at a compound annual rate of 0.8% to reach £3.6 billion. Integrating technology and sustainability practices will be key drivers of future growth. Innovations in AR and VR will enhance visitor engagement and attract tech-savvy consumers. A commitment to sustainability, such as through carbon reduction, eco-friendly operations and green exhibitions, will align with evolving consumer expectations and regulatory requirements. These trends are set to improve public appeal and operational efficiency, securing future revenue growth.

As of 2024, Westfield London was the largest shopping center in the United Kingdom. According to a list compiled by Statista, Westfield London covered 236,000 square meters, while Liverpool One, in second place, spanned over 234,000 square meters. Westfield’s retail properties Both Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City were leading shopping centers in the United Kingdom in 2024. The Westfield shopping centers are home to almost 700 stores combined and see over 80 million customer visits each year. Success despite fluctuating footfall Retail footfall in UK shopping centers saw a dramatic decline due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis in 2020, even compared to other shopping destinations, like retail parks and high streets. Since then, footfall in shopping centers has largely recovered but remains unstable, making it all the more notable that the United Kingdom was leading the European shopping center market in 2023, and contextualizing Westfield’s ongoing success on both national and global levels.

In September of 2023, Eldon Square, a shopping center located in Newcastle, accounted for over 229,000 visitors, making it the most visited shopping center in Great Britain that month. Other locations with high footfall figures included Lakeside shopping centre, and Westfield Stratford City.

The UK’s London West End is a mecca for both local and global shoppers. Accordingly, it is also the leading shopping district in terms of the number of operating stores in the UK. As of 2019, there were 6,830 stores operating in the London West End retail center. Manchester City Center and Glasgow City Center came in second and third place, with 1,590 and 1,559 stores respectively. Apart from Greater London area, Yorkshire and The Humber had the highest number of retail centers where store numbers were greater compared to the rest of the country.

Growing e-commerce sector threatens retail centers
The future of physical retail centers are under threat due to the growing influence of the e-commerce sector and online sales. Over the past ten years, online retail sales have had an increasing influence in overall retail purchases. In 2019, online sales accounted for 19 percent of total retail sales. Since 2015, online sales have been growing on average between 1 and 1.6 percent per year. The rise in online retail sales is also correlated to the fall in visiting numbers to retail stores. With slight month-to-month variations, the overall trend from January 2017 to March 2019 demonstrates decreasing footfall to retail centers. The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated quarantining measures implemented by the UK government in mid-March 2020 has further affected footfall to UK retail centers. On Easter Sunday 2020, footfall to UK retail centers reached their lowest point ever, with a reported decline of 89.9 percent compared to the year prior.

Consumer opinions on the future of retail centers

Although e-commerce threatens the future survival of retail centers in the UK, consumer opinions demonstrate there is still a demand for physical stores. When surveyed about their opinions on high street in the UK, UK consumers tend to have supportive attitudes towards retail centers remaining open. 70 percent of UK consumers stated being worried about their shops closing and 74 percent were worried about the future of UK high street retail.

A 2022 study examined the footfall of selected tourist attractions and out-of-town shopping areas in Europe. This metric is used to compare pedestrian flow dynamics of urban locations, such as shopping centers and retail parks. Based on the analysis, the shopping destination La Valette-du-Var-La Garde in Toulon, France, reported around 60 million visits in 2022. That was more than five times the visits to Notre-Dame in Paris that year. Meanwhile, the footfall of West Thurrock in Greater London was roughly 10 times higher than the visits to St. Paul's Cathedral.

The three busiest stations on the London Underground network are all major interchanges for national rail and long-distance bus services. In 2023, the busiest station on the London Underground system was King's Cross St. Pancras, with over 72 million passenger entries and exits recorded. The second and third busiest stations were Waterloo and Victoria, with 70.3 and 59.6 million entries and exits respectively. Passenger traffic on the London Underground Passenger traffic increased significantly over the past 20 years. Between 2000 and 2019, the number of passenger journeys more than doubled, reaching its highest value in the financial year 2017/18, when the number of journeys almost reached 1.4 billion. Passenger volumes dropped in during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and remained low in the following years. By the 2023/24 financial year, passenger numbers had recovered to 1.2 billion passengers. The Tube, big contributor to the TfL's revenue London Underground fares make up the greatest contribution to overall passenger revenue of Transport for London (TfL). The Tube reported a passenger income of 2.5 billion British pounds in the financial year 2023/24, up from 2.2 billion reported a year earlier. Overall, TfL generated revenue worth over five billion British pounds from all the services in the financial year 2023/24.

An estimated 8,543 retail stores in the United Kingdom closed throughout 2024. This was a slowdown increase from 2024, during which 10,494 stores closed. Retail in the UK Despite almost consistent annual growth, the popularity of high-street shopping is in decline. While the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of online shopping, high-street footfall was in decline before the virus became part of the social lexicon. Brick and mortar shops in the UK struggle to compete with both price-cutting establishments and the world of online retail. According to the source, physical shops lost 12.6 percent of their market between 2006 and 2019. Retailers are looking to maintain their profitability through job cutting, and the closure of many smaller outlets. COVID-19 and e-commerce Online retail has seen astronomical growth in recent years and was given a helping hand by consumers stuck at home during pandemic lockdowns. Online retail sales skyrocketed in 2020 and 2021, a trend expected to continue into 2022 given that internet sales now account for around a quarter of all retail sales in Great Britain. Additionally, the new home-working reality of everyday life now means that workers are spending less time in retail areas near their workplace where they would normally spend lunch times or pick up bits and pieces traveling to and from the office five days a week.

In 2023, London Heathrow Airport handled approximately 79.2 million passengers, up from 61.6 million recorded in the previous year. Over the period given, the passenger traffic mostly increased until 2019 before decreasing sharply from roughly 81 million to approximately 22 million travelers in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Passenger traffic at London Heathrow Airport As well as being the most populous city in the European Union, London is also one of Europe’s major commercial hubs and has the largest city airspace in the world. There are eight airports serving the London area, including Gatwick (IATA: LGW), Stansted (IATA: STN), and Heathrow (IATA: LHR). London Heathrow Airport is the largest airport in the United Kingdom and one of the busiest in the world, handling over 70 million passengers annually in the last decade. By comparison, world’s busiest airport, Atlanta (IATA: ATL), handled some 75.7 million passengers in 2021.

After the reopening of Terminal 2 (the Queen's Terminal) on June 4, 2014, Heathrow is back to operating five terminals. Terminal 5, which was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008, resulted in construction costs of some 5.6 billion euros (or about 4.7 billion British pounds), making it one of the most expensive airport restructuring projects worldwide. The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, which itself is owned by Spanish construction contractor Ferrovial (one of the largest European construction companies). In 2022, Heathrow Airport Holdings generated total revenue of just under three billion British pounds.

Unibal Rodamco Westfield owns two shopping centers in the UK, London and Stratford City. In 2023, the were just over 80 million customer visits in total to these two shopping centers. This was an increase compared to the previous year.

Westfield shopping centers are among the biggest in the United Kingdom, both located in the London Metropolitan area. Westfield Stratford City is currently the more prominent of the two in terms of its selling space and the retail sales it generates, as their 2018 numbers reveal.

More traffic at Westfield Stratford City

Westfield Stratford City was opened in 2011 as part of the London 2012 Olympic Park project and is adjacent to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Since then, an overwhelmingly large number of shoppers visited the shopping center than Westfield’s original London location in Shepherd’s Bush.

Competitive market
With its two branches, Westfield is one of the defining features of the UK shopping center landscape. Yet the sector is a theatre for fierce competition with two other dominant presences: Land Securities and Intu Properties. In addition to managing a large portfolio of shopping centers scattered around the UK, both property groups also distinguish themselves in the European retail property and shopping center sector.