The ‘Euro-pound’ is buoying London’s West End as continental shoppers flock to the city’s shopping district, the New West End Company said today.
The company, which promotes West End and predominantly Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, said shopper footfall in the West End was up 2.8% on May last year – despite the tougher market for high street retailers.
The figures compare with the rest of the UK where footfall was down by 0.1% for May.
‘In a challenging economic climate hitting the UK retail sector it is encouraging to see an increase in visitors to the West End and particularly from Western Europe,’ said Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
‘The West End's offer combining world class shopping, great theatre and diverse restaurants clearly must have an edge over the competition if more and more of the discerning French and Italians are choosing to visit our capital.’
The figures were helped by strong spending performance on May’s two bank holidays.
Incremental growth
‘The euro has been incrementally gaining strength throughout 2008, with a peak towards the end of May, and we’ve had strong international expenditure in the West End from German, Spanish, Italian, Irish and French visitors,’ said Jace Tyrrell of the New West End Company.
‘This was backed by two bank holidays’ worth of spending, the May Day Bank Holiday when footfall on Saturday and Monday was up +15.4% and +10.7% respectively year on year and the Whitsunday Bank Holiday when footfall on Saturday was up +11.9%.
‘The quintessentially British stores like Selfridges, Liberty, John Lewis, Smythson of Bond Street and Aquascutum have been doing particularly well with the ‘euro-pound’, as have the West End’s international exclusives such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Banana Republic.’
Tourists account for 50% of the West End’s 200m visitors each year, who spend a total £5.5bn.
