The number of people visiting Burnham-On-Sea’s town centre is up year-on-year, according to new figures from the Town Council’s two footfall counters.
The counters – which are installed on the YMCA shop at the southern end of Burnham High Street and the Railway Inn at the northern end – show a 6 per cent increase in visitors overall compared to the same time a year ago.
The number of visitors counted for the month of October 2017 was 229,590, while it was 218,361 in October 2016.
The latest figures for the week starting 6th November counted 47,961 people during the one week, with the busiest day being carnival day when 9,672 visitors were recorded in the town centre. The total carnival spectator numbers are far larger, though, since many people watch outside the town centre.
Footfall by the week in Burnham: how 2016 and 2017 compare
The figures also show footfall numbers at The Railway end of the town centre are lower than those at the YMCA end. Visitors seem to favour the southern end of the town centre, which is nearer the B&M store and car/coach parks.
While the whole period between 2016 and 2017 shows a footfall improvement of 6%, the shorter comparative period since B&M was open in both datasets shows footfall is slightly down and this point is being closely watched.
A Burnham-On-Sea Chamber of Trade spokesman told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The Chamber is pleased to see the numbers continue to be up year-on-year by a small amount.”
“Burnham has a great range of independent shops that attract shoppers all year round. We also have an ongoing project underway to attract coaches into the town which brings a steady flow of passengers through the year, contributing to these figures.”
“The Chamber has also distributed over 40,000 copies of our shoppers guide brochure across the region this year to promote Burnham town centre as a place to visit and do shopping.”
The footfall monitors were installed in April 2016 at the two locations in the High Street to help understand visitor flows, trends and numbers. The monitors do not record personal information or faces of visitors.
