Footfall on the rise in Galway city centre

Increased visitor numbers have resulted in a rise in footfall in Galway city centre in the past year .

Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath has confirmed that footfall on Shop Street and Quay Street increased by 11% in 2019.

Mr McGrath is basing the figures on data supplied by private company Magnet, who in conjunction with Galway City Business Association, operate footfall counters at entry points onto the city’s pedestrian zone. Mr McGrath said the data was “invaluable”.

A City Council spokesperson said that counters, paid for by the local authority, were installed in February of 2018. From then, until the end of December 2018, the counters recorded footfall of 625,000 on Shop Street and Quay Street. For the same period in 2019, the footfall was 695,000.

The spokesperson said the figures were “not absolute” but they “give an indication of a trend for whether footfall is up or down”.

He explained that the counters operate in a similar way to Google Maps – they track the number of visitors to Shop Street based on the Wifi in their mobile phones.

It obviously does not count people without mobile phones, or people whose Wifi is not turned on.

“In 2019, there was a substantial increase in footfall and this is directly attributed to an increase in visitors to the city, from abroad and also domestic visitors taking ‘staycations’,” added the spokesperson.

Galway’s designation as European Capital of Culture in 2020 should drive footfall even higher this year, he said.