Footfall in Dublin rises but falls short of boom levels

Footfall on Dublin’s leading shopping streets is higher this year than last year, but is still far short of the levels reached during the boom-time peak 10 years ago, according to new research.

The number of people shopping or passing through shopping streets is a key barometer used by economists to assess consumer spending and is used by store owners to assess levels of rent they are paying out on particular streets.

Property company Savills says that there was an average weekly number of 321,274 shoppers and pedestrians passing along Henry St so far this year.

That number is up from over 314,000 people for the same period last year, but is down from the 321,639 people and 332,816 people recorded on the same street in 2013 and 2012.

In 2005, at the height of the spending boom, 464,547 shoppers and pedestrians were recorded passing along Henry St in the early part of the year.

John McCartney, director of research at Savills, said the number of people on the streets are based on cameras situated on O’Connell St and Grafton St in the Dublin Business Improvement Area.

“Footfall is coming back, but is not where it was in the past,” he said.

The highest number for any week on Henry St was recorded in the second week of January in 2005, when 519,751 people were recorded on the street.

Its research shows a strong link with footfall on Dublin’s streets over the last 10 years with sunshine, rainfall and temperature in the capital.

Sunny days bring out the numbers, while an increase of 1% in average monthly rainfall leads to a decline of 0.03% in footfall on Henry St.

An increase of 1% in average sunshine hours would bring an additional 18,000 people onto the street, Mr McCartney said.

Grafton St footfall is less dependent on the weather because many appear to use the street to pass through to other destinations, he said.