Footfall recovery on Welsh high streets has been slowed by the RMT union rail strikes with Cardiff among the hardest hit compared to other cities in the UK, the Welsh Retail Consortium (WRC) has said.
Commenting on data from the British Retail Consortium, the WRC said Cardiff shopper numbers were particularly hard hit by the rail strike disruption which took place across three days and saw travel disruption throughout the week.
While London was impacted by both TFL tube strikes and RMT Union rail strikes, it only saw an overall footfall decline of 1.4% last week.
However, Cardiff recorded an overall footfall decline of 11.3%.
Footfall in the Welsh capital was severely impacted on Wednesday 22 June, the day after the first day of strikes, with visits to the city centre down by 25.4%.
The second day of strikes on Thursday 23 June saw a decline of 2.0% in footfall which dropped further the day after at -8.2%.
Sara Jones, head of the WRC, said: “Cardiff shopper numbers appear to have been particularly hard hit by the rail strike disruption, with visits to the city centre down by over 11 percent.
"After two very challenging years and facing into the teeth of the cost of living crisis, Cardiff, and town and city centres across the country are in desperate need of visitors to help retailers bounce back after two brutally difficult years."
She added: "If we don’t see a footfall recovery soon it might be a long winter for the capital’s retailers”.
Last week, national RMT Union rail strikes took place across three days on June 21, 23 and 25 which involved thousands of RMT member rail workers at Network Rail and 13 train operators.
It was the biggest outbreak of strike action in the rail industry in a generation.
The British Retail Consortium published data comparing footfall in UK cities during the rail strike week with the footfall average of the previous four weeks (Sunday 29 May to Saturday 18 June 2022).
It found the total UK footfall (calculated by the number of shoppers entering stores) decreased by 3.9% over the RMT Union Rail Strikes week compared to the previous four week average.
Thursday was the worst performing day, with a 13.7% decline in footfall, followed by Tuesday at 9.4% compared with the average of the previous four weeks.
High streets saw the weakest performance at a 3.3% decline, compared with the average of the previous four weeks.
London footfall on Tuesday decreased by 7.4%, compared to the average of the previous four weeks. This was still lower than Cardiff, which saw a footfall decline of 18.0%, despite London being impacted by both rail and tube strikes on Tuesday.
Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of British Retail Consortium, said: "Retail footfall recovery slowed last week as rail strikes disrupted journeys across the UK. As expected, commuter traffic was hit with many working from home to avoid unnecessary travel, impacting already-vulnerable city centre businesses reliant on those commuters.
"Whilst we hope footfall will bounce back in the following weeks and months, it comes at a difficult time for businesses as costs are continuing to spiral and consumers are tightening their belts. Retailers continue to do all they can to help consumers and keep prices down, expanding their value ranges, offering discounts for some vulnerable groups, and investing in their own supply chains to reduce future costs."
Andy Sumpter, retail consultant EMEA for Sensormatic Solutions, said: "After the buoyant boost to shopper numbers we saw over the Jubilee weekend, last week’s train strikes threaten to derail retail’s footfall recovery. While consumers stayed home and avoided unnecessary trips due to travel disruption, retailers will be hoping that the dip in footfall will be short-lived and that shopper numbers even themselves out, as pent-up demand prompts consumers back on to the high street once the strike ends."
