Cardiff has moved up a place and is now in the top five of the UK’s best performing retail locations.
The latest report by Experian, who provide an in-depth analysis of the UK’s retail centres, shows that Cardiff has gone from 6th place to 5th over the last quarter, having been in 10th place earlier last year.
The news comes on the back of the opening of St David’s last October, which saw an extra half a million people pass through the city centre in the first three days, and an overall increase of people now travelling to the Welsh capital every week.
Cardiff is ranked higher than Nottingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Bluewater in Kent, and the local competitor Bristol and is now firmly established as one of the top five major retail players in the UK.
Extended shopping hours, new park and ride facilities as well as the new Freeb bus, offering people a free option to travel around the city centre, have all contributed to help make Cardiff a true capital retail destination.
And the city centre experience is set to improve further with work underway on phase one of creating a pedestrian friendly environment in St Mary Street and High Street, creating a distinctive “Castle Quarter” at the top end.
Cardiff Council leader Rodney Berman said: “To move into the top five retail locations is a magnificent achievement. There is no doubt about the popularity that Cardiff now has, not just as a retail destination, but a genuine world-class destination with so much to offer.
“The improvements we are making to St Mary Street and High Steet can only add to this and combined with St David’s, John Lewis, Queen Street and the city centre’s Victorian arcades, Cardiff is a city that offers a diverse range of shops and attractions in a unique environment.”
Executive member for Economic Development, Councillor Neil McEvoy, added: “Cardiff is clearly a city that people want to come and visit and this news underlines that.
“When you look at the mix Cardiff can offers in terms of culture, retail, leisure and sport, coupled with its transport links, accessibility and compactness, you have a very special city, which as the new ranking shows, is going from strength to strength.”
