Weekend foot traffic stepping up in Auckland CBD

Auckland Council is hopeful that the spark is returning to the CBD, saying visitor numbers over the past two Fridays and Saturdays were over 120,000 a day.

The central city — including waterfront areas and the Queen St shopping strip — has been hit hard over the past two years; chiefly by Covid-19 restrictions.

Prior to Covid-19, some business owners had also spoken of the toll taken by construction of the City Rail Link.

Figures released by the Auckland Council show the Fridays and Saturdays in May saw the highest consistent numbers of people coming to the city centre — from Karangahape Rd to the waterfront — since before Auckland’s August 2021 lockdown.

Across areas of the city centre where footfall is measured every hour, more than 120,000 people have visited on each Friday and Saturday in the last two weeks.

And between May 6-17, there was a 5.8 per cent increase in the number of people visiting the city centre compared with the 12 days immediately prior.

“The recent increase in visitors to the city centre is small but encouraging, and we’re hopeful that it signals the start of the longerterm recovery that businesses impacted by Covid-19 have been waiting for,” Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said.

Goff said there were many factors behind the increase, including the City of Colour initiative.

City of Colour is a free trail of more than 50 art installations bringing canopies of colour, supersized artworks and dazzling waterfalls of light to Auckland’s streets and squares.

“It has been great to see so many people enjoying City of Colour, which has brightened central Auckland and drawn visitors to the free trail of more than 50 installations from Karangahape Rd to the waterfront, providing a welcome boost to local businesses,” Goff said.

City of Colour ends tomorrow.