Almost normal
Travel for retail and recreation purposes still below pre-pandemic levels nationally
With Plan B restrictions dropped in England at the end of January and similar easings in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, to what extent are we back to normal?
Not quite is the answer as far as retail or recreation is concerned.
We've used Google Mobility data to plot the change in the percentage travelling to pubs, cafes, restaurants, libraries, theme parks, shopping centres, museums and cinemas on Saturday 12th February 2022 compared with the corresponding Saturday in February 2020 (pre-pandemic).
Across the UK as a whole, travel for retail or recreation is down 16 percentage points on pre-pandemic levels.
But as our map shows there are variations across the UK. On the map, the darker the shading the closer that district is to normality. The lighter the shading, the greater the gap from pre-pandemic levels of activity.
In parts of Wales, Glasgow, London and Leicester, visiting shops or leisure attractions is down by over 20 percentage points. On the other hand, travel to retail and recreation is at or above pre-pandemic levels in the Isle of Wight, Cardiff, Wokingham, Moray and Middlesbrough.
This time last year, travel for retail and recreation was 58 percentage points down on the previous year and so February 2022 feels almost normal compared with 12 months ago.
Almost but not quite.
