As part of one of its first projects in its new five-year term, Newquay Business Improvement District (BID) has re-instated the town’s footfall monitoring counter on Bank Street and is working on installing a new second device on Cliff Road over the next few weeks.
Both monitoring devices will collect a wealth of data for the town, which will help inform future decisions aimed at improving the town and will allow the BID to assess the impact of any campaigns or initiatives on people’s movements. Newquay BID is the only organisation that is collecting this data on behalf of the town and this is the first time since 2013 that Newquay is collecting such in-depth intelligence.
Newquay BID has been working with Springboard Research LTD on this project, an organisation that quantifies foot traffic in the UK throughout high streets. Using sensors, artificial intelligence, and computer vision, the technology can provide actionable footfall intelligence for town wide figure collation.
Since April 1, the pre-existing counter on Bank Street has been re-activated and has been collecting comprehensive footfall figures. The devices offer 24/7 footfall monitoring of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic, which will provide a wealth of data for businesses, authorities and future investors.
This data will be key for many existing platforms that operate in the town, such as the recently formed Newquay Town Team, who will use these supporting figures to source future funding opportunities. Data will be accessible to all BID levy paying member businesses and authorities, with links to such reports and figures being issued monthly via the Newquay BID newsletter.
The intelligence will enable businesses to identify key patterns and trends which will be able to inform and influence their future marketing efforts to increase trade and maximise their own profits.
BID manager, Carla-Marie Jones, said: “We’re delighted to be leading on this footfall project which we feel will be of huge benefit to Newquay, particularly as no other organisation is currently collating footfall on behalf of the town.
“Our town needs some statistics to back it longer term, for both the current and future economic landscape, potential future investment and funding opportunities. This is also a way for pre-existing businesses to really understand their towns footfall trends and then capitalise on them. This simple, yet effective way of monitoring town centre usage will be useful for everyone. It is great to know that we will be giving our town the best chance to anticipate and spot changes to usage as well as ever-changing consumer habits over the coming years.
“Logistically, the additional second counter at Cliff Road will allow us to collate and cover footfall trends at the opposite end of the town so we can gather comprehensive data for the town centre, rather than just the Bank Street area.”
