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Dear Downtown Winnipeg BIZ Member,
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Welcome to the second Downtown Counts snapshot, a monthly roundup of information about the past month’s downtown activity and what we expect lies ahead. We are committed to sharing the information we collect to help prepare BIZ members for more people returning downtown.
As always, if you have any questions, contact us at info@downtownwinnipegbiz.com.
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In our last Downtown Counts, we were pleased to share data that represented a slow and steady increase of people downtown. This month, the data shows a decline in visits. We are confident that this is an isolated event as the dates align with the April blizzard that contributed to a shutting down of many businesses, programs and services in the city.
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As you may recall from the last edition of Downtown Counts, the “downtown visits” information is brand new for us. It captures the number of people who visit downtown and spend time in the area. This data does not include workers. But we’re working on that!
The data shows a slight decrease in April visits from the previous month. The first two weeks of April continued to trend upwards but during the week of April 17, data shows a dip in visits. By the last week of April 2022 (after the blizzard had ended), visits were closer to levels observed in the first week of April 2022.
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Return to downtown educational institutions
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This month, educational institutions celebrated in-person convocations for the first time since the pandemic started. While we’ve heard it will be some time before in-person classes are back at their regular numbers, we can expect to see more students return to downtown in the coming semesters.
Downtown post-secondary institutions in our zone currently have over 4,000 student registrations for in-person spring courses this year.
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New data from the Winnipeg Parking Authority shows a steady increase in the number of people parking on downtown streets. Last month, downtown on-street parking use was close to but still below the 2019 (pre-pandemic) average.
The Downtown BIZ continues to advocate for parking policies that benefit downtown including working with the City to make complimentary curbside pick-up locations permanent. We’re also advocating for a portion of parking profits to be invested back into downtown to make improvements in the area.
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*New: Winnipeg Transit ridership
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We are pleased to add Winnipeg Transit average daily ridership to Downtown Counts. The average daily ridership data, captures increases or decreases in the amount of people travelling around the city by bus.
Data shows the average daily winter ridership this winter was up 26% from last winter. While the data shows recent daily ridership was around a third of Winnipeg Transit’s reported weekday average, it is on the rise.
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Below is an overview of next month’s large events where attendees will likely want to find places to dine and shop nearby.
We hope this helps you better prepare your business and marketing efforts.
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As always, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions:
204-958-4640
info@downtownwinnipegbiz.com
Thank you,
Kate Fenske, CEO
Downtown Winnipeg BIZ
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