Despite Corona and war: Shopping remains the most important reason for people to drive to the city centre. This was the result of the third edition of a survey commissioned by the BTE, which was carried out in a total of ten cities and online in the first two weeks of March this year.
A total of 4,000 people were interviewed. Of these, 55 percent agreed that shopping is the main reason for visiting the city, on Saturday it was even 63 percent. Motives such as eating/drinking and lingering/sightseeing as well as necessary errands ranked well behind them.
Fashion is the main reason for visiting the city
In particular, consumers (67 percent) in city centers are looking for fashion, including shoes and leather goods. Young consumers, in particular, increasingly visited the city centers again in March. In January only nine percent of the visitors were under 25 years old, in March it was already 20 percent. About a third of city center visitors went to three or more fashion stores, 45 percent at least two and 17 percent only went to one fashion store. About two thirds of them spent one to two hours in the fashion trade, 13 percent at least three hours or more. The remaining 30 percent spent less than an hour shopping for fashion. Every tenth respondent only visited shops in other sectors.
Those not looking for fashion visited the city centers to buy groceries (30 percent), perfume/drugstore items (19 percent), sporting goods and watches/jewellery (16 percent each), and books/stationery (14 percent).
Car beats public transport
The survey also tried to filter out whether the attractiveness of inner cities has already reached the level it was before the pandemic. The proportion of foreign visitors in March rose slightly by three percentage points to 47 percent compared to January 2022. However, the proportion has not yet reached the value of summer 2021, when it was 53 percent.
When visiting the city, your own car is the preferred means of transport (54 percent), followed by public transport, which 31 percent of visitors use to arrive. Another ten percent come on foot or by bike. Overall, this means a significant increase in car use and a decrease in public transport use, according to the BTE.