A return to normal footfall levels in Newbury town centre
NOVEMBER has seen a return to normal levels of footfall in Newbury town centre for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, with visitor levels throughout the month all but matching those seen back in November 2019, writes Newbury Business Improvement District chief executive Melissa Hughes.
It has been a long and bumpy road to recovery since March 2020, when the streets were deserted and only a few essential retailers welcomed shoppers through their doors.
This return to normal visitor levels bucks the trend of many other market towns, regional towns and cities.
On average, footfall in retail destinations across the UK this month has still been down by more than 12 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Newbury is thriving in comparison, despite office worker footfall still being considerably down.
We have seen an influx of visitors coming to Newbury from further afield, and many residents are choosing to stay local and shop local.
When we came together as a new BID team last year, we introduced a four-step strategy to help drive Newbury town centre’s recovery from the effects of the pandemic.
This included:
1. Improving Newbury’s online presence by refining the content, design, and usability
of the Visit Newbury website.
2. Driving traffic to the Visit Newbury website with high-quality, cross-channel marketing campaigns.
3. Converting website visitors into town centre visitors by giving people compelling reasons to visit Newbury.
4. Sharing stories about the positive advances in footfall to help businesses see Newbury as a viable option for their next branch or first business venture.
If you think of visitors as the chicken and new businesses as the egg, it can be challenging to know which one needs to come first.
Clearly, the more a town has to offer in terms of shops, restaurants, leisure facilities, and community facilities, the more compelled people will feel to visit the town.
However, any business worth its salt will carry out a detailed feasibility analysis before opening in a location.
If they don’t feel enough visitors (or the right demographic of visitors) visit that location, they are likely to rule it out as an option.
We decided to focus on drawing visitors back to town first, knowing that this will help to ‘sell’ Newbury as a feasible location when businesses are analysing their options.
With more than 20,000 people a month now using the Visit Newbury website (a 400 per cent increase compared to before we launched our fourstep strategy) and normal levels of town centre footfall achieved, we are in the ideal situation to attract even more new businesses to Newbury town centre.
We’ve already seen nearly 30 new businesses open here since restrictions started to ease in April.
Newbury is becoming more and more vibrant by the day.
Anyone who visited during our Christmas Lights Switch-On Festival on Saturday, November 20, will have experienced this vibrancy for themselves and will understand a little of the magic that makes Newbury so special.
It’s Newbury’s sense of community that really sets it apart, and this community will help to ensure that Newbury remains a thriving market town long into the future.