In June, shopper numbers in Northern Ireland were 11.8% higher than a year ago, up on the 9.2% rise in May 2014, reports the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium-Springboard Footfall Monitor. Northern Ireland continues to have the highest regional footfall figures in the UK.
Aodhán Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, comments: "It's fantastic to see another great set of footfall figures, with Northern Ireland coming top for footfall out of all of the nations and regions across the UK. Northern Ireland needs a high-performing retail industry to support job creation and to drive growth in the wider economy – and these figures demonstrate that it's getting exactly that.
"We need now to build on this success. Whether it's on the High Street or out-of-town, online or in bricks-and-mortar stores, we need to support the Northern Ireland's retailers to deliver high quality good to consumers at the best price and in the way that is most convenient to them.
"The NIRC is committed to continuing to work with Government to ensure that retail in Northern Ireland maintains its strong performance. If we are to build on these outstanding figures we need to make sure that that we don't disadvantage retailers who favour one particular sales channel or location over another – it's only by ensuring that policy supports the industry as a whole that retailers can continue to drive Northern Ireland's economic recovery."
Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, adds: "Once again, Northern Ireland recorded strong growth in footfall, particularly in comparison with a drop of 0.7% across UK as a whole and declines of 0.6% in Scotland and 1.4% in Wales. However, this increase does need to be put into the correct context of an improvement that commenced later than it did elsewhere.?
"The increase of 11.8% in June follows a decline in footfall of 5.3% in June 2013 when footfall increased by 0.1% across the UK; and over the three months to June 2013 footfall in Northern Ireland dropped by 4.4% compared with 0.1% across the UK.? However, it is encouraging that footfall in Northern Ireland has increased in each of the last four months this year and that the rate of increase is not slowing, suggesting that the turnaround, whilst starting later, is gaining momentum.''
