It seems predictions made by the media that consumers would stay at home this summer have rung true, and have been reflected in better than anticipated footfall levels in town centres during August.

For the country as a whole, footfall in our high streets fell by 4.4% compared with August 2008, a much smaller annual decline than in both July this year (-7.3%) and in August 2008 (-8.5%). Moreover during the whole school summer holiday period, footfall fell by only 1.4% compared to last year.

However, it seems that this improved performance is not a consequence of an increase in holidaying in the UK, as there was a greater than average drop in footfall in our traditional holiday destinations of coastal and historic town centres during August (in coastal towns by 9.7% from August 2008 and by 13.6% in historic towns). Looking at the school summer holiday period as a whole, the decline in footfall in coastal town centres was 3.9% as against the 1.4% nationally noted above.

It would appear that many people literally stayed at home during August, or perhaps took shorter breaks, but there were indicators that consumers took the opportunity to get away at the end of the month.

For the last week of August footfall in coastal towns was only down 5.7% on 2008, compared with an average drop of 14.3% during the first three weeks of the month, and over the Bank Holiday weekend itself, coastal towns fared better than the country as a whole with a 5.7% drop in footfall from 2008, compared with a 9.2% drop nationally.

Aug 08 to Aug 09

-4.4%

Aug 08 to Aug 09

-4.1%

Jul 08 to Jul 09

-7.3%

Jul 08 to Jul 09

-5.9%

Jun 08 to Jun 09

-7.7%

Jun 08 to Jun 09

-12.1%

Jul to Aug 09

2.1%

Jul to Aug 09

3.9.%

Jul to Aug 08

0.5%

Jul to Aug 08

1.8%