Monthly Footfall Overview: April 2026

Overall, April showed mixed but generally positive footfall trends across the city. Park Street recorded a decline compared to March and remained significantly below April 2025 figures, while Victoria Street saw strong growth both month on month and year on year. Broadmead experienced an increase from March, although overall footfall remained slightly below last year’s levels. Easter holidays and bank holiday activity are likely to have influenced patterns across the city, particularly quieter weekday periods and lower footfall on Easter Sunday. Saturdays continued to drive the highest footfall across most locations, alongside strong lunchtime, after-work and weekend afternoon activity.

Following our investment in Micro Location insights via O2/Virgin Media, two sensors have been installed on Victoria Street and Park Street, allowing us to better understand footfall trends across the city. 

We also capture data through two sensors in Broadmead, installed on Broadmead East and the corner of Broadmead West and Union Street. These sensors measure passing footfall by combining AI-powered algorithms with existing camera networks.

PARK STREET*

*There was an issue with the Park Street sensor recording data on 30th April, due to upgrades being carried out on the network. 

OVERALL TRENDS

Compared to March, footfall on Park Street was down 18% with a 10% decrease in unique visitors, meaning the average number of visits per person decreased. The daily average visitor number was 6,023, compared to 7,173 in March. There was also a notable 60% decrease this month compared to April 2025 where the daily average was 15,351 visitors.

Key trends included:

• Weekend impact: The busiest day for footfall was Saturday 18th, with the other Saturdays also being very popular, showing the popularity of weekends on Park Street. Throughout the month, there were no big variations in footfall, even though the warm sunny weather during the first half of the month slightly tailed off as the month went on.
• Seasonal events: Easter Holidays most probably impacted footfall which was 16% lower in the weekdays of the first week of April than the weekdays the rest of the month. This can be partly explained by the Easter bank holiday weekend and school holidays, which meant some families were potentially on holiday and not working while schools were closed.
• International visits: There was a 4% decrease in footfall from international visitors compared to March. The largest number of visitors came from Spain, similar to previous months.

SPENDING POWER & TRAVEL PATTERNS

• Compared to the UK average, Park Street visitors had a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ spend power. 
• When comparing the spending power of different categories of visitor, ‘residents’ had the highest average, followed by ‘visitors’ and then ‘workers’.   
• 68% of visitors made 1 visit, 28% made 2-5 visits, 3% made 6-10 visits, and 1% visited over 11 times. This aligns with a decrease in average visits per visitor from March to April.
• The BS8 postcode brought the highest number of visitors to Park Street, followed by BS6.
• 70% of visitors came from the Bristol area, up from 64% in March. 3% came from Bath and 2% from Gloucester postcodes.

VICTORIA STREET

OVERALL TRENDS

Overall, there was a 11% increase in footfall from March and a 1% increase in unique visitor numbers, meaning on average each person visited the area with a similar frequency. The daily average visitor number was 9,315, compared to 8,390 in March. Additionally, there was a 42% increase from April 2025, which was 6,573.

Key trends included: 

• Seasonal events: The busiest days for footfall in April were the last 3 days of April, Tuesday 28th – Thursday 30th.
• Weekday impact: Tuesdays and Wednesdays had the highest footfall across the week, with Sundays the lowest.

SPENDING POWER & TRAVEL PATTERNS

• Compared to the national average, Victoria Street attracted a larger proportion of visitors with ‘high’ or ‘very high’ spend power. 
• Compared to April 2025, a much smaller proportion of visitors to Victoria Street has a ‘very low’ spending power.  
• ‘Visitors’ had the highest average, followed by ‘residents’ and then ‘workers’.  
• 63% of visitors made 1 visit, 30% made 2-5 visits, 5% made 6-10 visits, and 1% made 11+ visits, which is similar to last month.
• The BS4 postcode brought the highest number of visitors, followed by BS3.
• 60% of visitors to Victoria Street came from the Bristol area, compared to 59% in March. 5% came from Bath postcodes and 3% from Gloucester postcodes. 
• Footfall from international visits was 4% lower this month compared to March. Similar to Park Street, the largest number of international visits were made from Spain. 

BROADMEAD

OVERALL TRENDS

The average daily footfall for Broadmead is divided between two sites: Broadmead East and 95 Broadmead. 

In April, the total footfall was 2% higher than in March. Broadmead East accounted for 74% of the total footfall and 95 Broadmead accounted for 26%. Across both sites, footfall was 4% lower than in April 2025.

Our Footfall & Insights pages are updated weekly with the latest footfall data. Please refer to our Reports & Resources section for a snapshot overview of footfall in our Monthly Visitor Reports and an overview of spend behaviours in our Quarterly Spend Reports. 

The expanded footfall data can be viewed through our online dashboard for more effective and informed decision making. Please get in touch if you would like more information.