Liverpool city centre visitor numbers soar over 5 million mark in November
Source: Liverpool Daily Post
The number of visitors to Liverpool city centre soared last month – with city leaders saying a marketing campaign seen by more than 3m people helped attract shoppers to the city.
Liverpool City Central Business Improvement District (BID), which covers the retail heart of the city centre outside Liverpool One, says footfall for November stood at 5.3m – up 20.5% on the previous month and up 14.7% on November last year.
Meanwhile, Liverpool One says it had 2.2m visitors last month – up 9.7% on November last year. Estates director Chris Bliss said he expected sales figures across the complex would also be up on last year.
Earlier this month, Liverpool One, Metquarter and the BID – which between them represent 600 city centre shops – teamed up with Merseytravel to launch a marketing campaign to bring visitors to Liverpool.
It included advertising and email marketing, as well as a mail drop to 750,000 homes across the North West and North Wales.
Visitor numbers were also boosted by events including the Christmas market and the Christmas lights switch-on, starring X Factor winner Rebecca Ferguson.
It was the first time the shopping centres and the BID had joined forces on a marketing campaign. Ged Gibbons, chief executive of City Central BID, said the increased collaboration between organisations in the city centre was paying dividends.
He said: “We’ve just launched the largest united marketing campaign that the city has ever had.
“It’s hard to attribute success directly to that, but there has to be something in it. We’ve been working on this all year. We decided back in January to ditch the old Christmas lights to come up with a festive lighting scheme which united the Arena and Convention Centre, the Albert Dock, Liverpool One, right the way through to Bold Street.
“We’ve got united marketing. We’re working to get people to Liverpool. Whether people decide to shop in Liverpool One, Church Street, Cricket, or Hollister, it’s then at their discretion.”
The BID figures are compiled by Springboard Research, which does the same work in 100 UK towns and cities. Footfall is monitored using cameras sited throughout the BID area.
That November rise in BID visitors means footfall for the year to date is almost identical to the previous year – down just 0.0008% – with more than 52m pedestrians counted. Nationally, footfall is down by 1.6%.
Mr Bliss said visitor numbers for Liverpool One in December were already up 7% on last year. He said: “We are enjoying buoyant footfall. Sales are also buoyant – not rising as much as footfall, but we’re certainly seeing positive percentage growth for sales year on year.
“We couldn’t really wish for more at this stage of the year.”
Springboard is now compiling its own Liverpool sales survey, based on anonymous responses from leading retailers, to discover how changes in footfall affect sales figures.
Mr Gibbons said the city centre could expect a further boost next year from various private sector investment projects.
The first phase of the £200m Central Village project, behind Central Station, is due to open next year, while work is also under way to expand the Marks and Spencer store into Williamson Square.
Meanwhile, work will start in January to pull down existing buildings on the corner of Church Street and Whitechapel to make way for a new 46,000 sq ft outlet for US fashion chain Forever 21
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