Wales has experienced the biggest fall in retail footfall in the 海角视频.
According to latest figures from the Welsh Retail Consortium (WRC) and consultancy Springboard Marketing, footfall declined by 5.2% year on year in the four weeks from September 29 to October 26.
The figures are the worst for Wales since September 2018.
Sara Jones, WRC鈥檚 head of policy and external affairs, said: 鈥淲ales was the worst performer out of all the 海角视频鈥檚 nations and regions, with a marked fall of 5.2% in the number of shoppers.
鈥淔ootfall figures wilted across all destinations, whether that be high street, retail park or shopping centres.
鈥淭hese figures are coupled with a Welsh vacancy rate for the quarter of 13.4%, which sees Wales with more empty shops than any other nation in Great Britain.
The high street saw the biggest drop with a footfall decline of 6.9%. This was the largest fall across Wales, England and Scotland.
Wales鈥檚 retail parks also had the largest footfall decline of all 海角视频 regions at 3.7% and out of all the 海角视频 nations the footfall drop in shopping centres was also the highest in Wales at 3.1%.
Ms Jones added: 鈥淰ery few people would disagree that the wider retail industry is facing a challenging period, with the cumulative burden of spiralling costs, Brexit uncertainty and subdued consumer spending hitting stores hard, particularly larger ones and chains.
鈥淲ith the clock ticking down to the release of the political parties鈥 general election manifestos and to the 海角视频 and Welsh budgets, retailers will be looking for convincing plans which lift the spirts of consumers and businesses.鈥
Diane Wehrle, of Springboard Marketing, said: 鈥淭he drop in footfall of 5.2% in Wales was the worst result for October in seven years.
鈥淲hile it can鈥檛 be regarded as a purely pre-Brexit breakdown, as the weather also played a part, the prevailing political uncertainty must be having a considerable impact on activity given the low level of consumer confidence.
鈥淲hen confidence is low, it doesn鈥檛 take much to deter shoppers and the torrential rain in the last week of the month hit footfall particularly hard, resulting in a drop in Wales鈥檚 footfall over those seven days of -7.7%.
However, reacting to the figures, Cardiff鈥檚 business improvement district (BID) known as For Cardiff said the city was bucking the trend in footfall when figures were broken down away from the broad national picture but stressed the coming weeks ahead of Christmas will be crucial in seeing healthy footfall numbers.
聽For Cardiff executive director Adrian Field said: 鈥淲e understand that attracting visitors to the high street is more difficult than ever, and the last few months have been tougher than the rest of the year.
鈥淲hile the national statistics are disappointing, the Springboard Marketing figures for Cardiff city centre over the last 52 weeks indicate that footfall is 6.9% up on the previous year, with numbers for the year to date also showing an increase of 5.5% on the previous year.
鈥淭his is why we invest in marketing Cardiff鈥檚 wider offer to visitors.
Mr Field added: 鈥淟ast year, our Christmas marketing campaign resulted in a 14.6% increase in footfall last December compared to 2017 which we hope to repeat next month.
鈥淭he next two months will undoubtedly be a crucial trading period.鈥
In Swansea, reaction to the figures is that they serve as a cautionary reminder of doing everything a town or city can to attract visitors at all times of the year.
Russell Greenslade, Swansea BID chief executive, said: 鈥淭hese latest figures from the WRC underline the importance of supporting our town and city centres, our retailers and local businesses, if we want to continue to enjoy the services they provide.
鈥淭here is no denying that across the 海角视频 and here in Wales, these are challenging times for retail.
鈥淭his is why Swansea BID works hard to organise and host events within the City centre, throughout the year, to boost footfall and to attract shoppers and visitors.
鈥淲e also support the drive to re-model our city centre in order to create a more balanced mix of retail, residential, offices and experiential, so the city centre is able to embrace and to cater for the changing tastes and requirements of consumers.鈥
He added that many events are already pencilled in over the coming weeks into the festive period and his message to shoppers is to support these initiatives.
Mr Greenslade said: 鈥淐hristmas is approaching and a number of events and activities are on the menu, from BID, Swansea Council, and from our museums, galleries, theatres, restaurants, cinemas and other attractions.
鈥淟et鈥檚 do all we can to support them, and to support our retailers and high streets.鈥
