Footfall tracker
Where can I find it?
In the Visitor Movements folder.
How often is the data recorded? (Granularity)
The data in this tracker is tracked in daily granularity. This means that there is a figure for every day. So you can see how an event or the day of the week can effect footfall at the locations recorded.
How often is the tracker updated?
This tracker is updated every month for the month previous. It should usually be updated within the first 10 days of the month.
What is the source of the data?
This data is collected by MRI Software (formerly Springboard). They use fixed cameras in locations to measure the number of people walking past the cameras. The data is kindly shared with the Hub by the parties that contract MRI Software to capture the data for them.
What does the data tell me?
The data in this tracker tells you how many people walked past a camera at each location in one single direction.
Metrics
The only metric measured in this tracker is ‘count’; the number of people passing the tracker.
Important things to remember about this data…
It’s important to remember that this tracker is counting the people walking past a camera in one direction. If a single person were to walk back and forth past the camera 6 times, they would be counted 3 times. Therefore if 100 people walked back and forth past the camera 6 times that would be a count of 300. This tracker is good for showing how busy a location within a destination is but it shouldn’t be confused for a total count of individual people.
Equally, most destinations have more than one camera. If, for example, you select Taunton in the location within the Filter you will be given the sum total from all 4 cameras in Taunton. Some of the people picked up on one camera will likely be picked up on two or more cameras and so when viewed as a total for the destination this can give an over inflated impression of busy-ness, or volume of people.
What can I filter on?
Date: to change the date range you’re viewing click on Filter and select the date range of your choice. If viewing in Daily granularity it’s worth looking at a month or two at most at once. You can also select Add comparison to compare the same location over two different time frames.
Area/location: as a default the graph will show you all the footfall counts from all locations added together. To view specific locations or towns click on Filter and choose the location of your choice. You can also select Add comparison to compare different locations over the same time frame.
Be sure to check you’re only changing one filter variable when comparing; either time OR location.
Are there other trackers that have similar data?
Another tracker that gives an idea of visitor volume in a destination is the Debit Card Expenditure data, specifically the Customers metric. This gives an idea of how many customers a spend area received in monthly granularity.
The BT Active Footfall tracker also provides data on volume of visitors to various locations around Devon and Somerset.
What else should I look at in relation to this tracker?
This tracker is interesting to look at alongside the daily weather; both rainfall and max temps. When the weather is inclement we tend to see quieter high streets, but often notice a higher than average footfall in the day following heavy rainfall.
Events also show an interesting correlation with footfall. By clicking on a data point in the analysis graph you can see if there were any events that day that may have caused the increase, or decrease, in footfall.