The Black Friday weekend provided a boost to Chester’s visitor numbers during November with more than 1.6 million people flocking to the city centre, a new report shows.
Data collected by independent retail analysts Springboard on behalf of CH1ChesterBID reveals a 7.9 per cent year-on-year footfall increase, putting the city centre well ahead of the rest of the UK, which saw an average fall of 0.7%.
The figures show the busiest day for shopping was Saturday 26 November – during the Black Friday weekend – with more than 89,000 city centre visitors throughout the day.
Carl Critchlow, BID Manager at CH1ChesterBID, said: “Chester really comes alive at Christmas and these latest figures show how much appeal we have for shoppers and city visitors. We’re delighted to be bucking the national trend of decline on the high street and to see that so many people are spending time exploring our shops, restaurants and cafés as well as enjoying our history and culture.
“We’ve worked hard with our city partners to deliver more Christmas activities in the city centre this year, and the feedback we’re getting from shoppers is that they welcome things like the free Santa’s Workshop, Christmas parades and city centre decorations. We want people to come here, enjoy spending time with their families and really make a day of it.
“These figures are welcome news for our city centre economy and signal a strong start to the Christmas period, but it’s important we continue to collaborate with our members and partners to maintain the momentum until the end of 2016 and into 2017.”
More than 9,000 people have visited CH1ChesterBID’s free Santa’s Workshop on Northgate Street since it opened on November 18. Open every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday up until Christmas Eve, the workshop also a gift-wrapping accepting donations for Claire House Hospice. The opening times are as follows:
Thursdays 4-8pm
Fridays 10am-1pm
Saturdays 10:30am-4pm
Sundays 11am-3pm
For a full schedule of Christmas activities in Chester city centre, click here
