POOLE saw visitor numbers soar over the Christmas season, with visits to the Dolphin Centre up more than a third on last year.

The boss of Beales says the town has become the “destination of choice” for shoppers, while attractions such as the Christmas Maritime Light Festival are credited with drawing people to the town.

John Grinnell, manager at the Dolphin Centre, said: “Throughout the festive period the Dolphin Centre was vibrant and busy with happy shoppers lining up to make the most of the great offers provided by retailers. Our overall footfall was up by 10 per cent in December, an increase of 36 per cent since last year, which is testament to how busy we have been.

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“The festive activities and events throughout the centre also encouraged the community to do their shopping in Poole, with Mrs Claus Kitchen going down a treat with more than 2,000 children and supporting the Homelessness Partnership. The Forest Holme Remembrance Tree raised nearly £6,000 from donations made in the Dolphin Centre.

“The high street is definitely continuing to soar since the pandemic and the buzz in the centre can’t go unnoticed.”

Tony Brown, chief executive of the revived Beales Department Stores, said: “We are thrilled to report that Beales had the best record-breaking Christmas for sales since we reopened in Poole in 2020. Our sales were consistently good throughout December, but Christmas week saw an outstanding number of purchases due to the increase in footfall in the Dolphin Centre.

“The Dolphin Centre was so busy over the festive period and it is evident from our number of sales and commentary received on the ground from our customers, that people are continuing to make the migration from shopping in Bournemouth, to now preferring Poole as their retail destination of choice.

“Both womenswear and footwear were our most popular departments in December, and we sold a phenomenal number of hats, scarves and gloves during the cold spell of weather we had. Additionally, it may come as no surprise that we completely sold out of air fryers and still are struggling to keep the models we now have back in stock, on the shelves for long.”

Ross Diamond, managing director at Waves, which sells surf and skateboarding clothes and footwear at Kingland, said: “We had a very busy Christmas period, and it was in fact the best December we've had in six years. We've worked hard to grow our social media and engage with our customers which has certainly helped, and we’re kicking off the new year with our January sales.”

JD Sports is also understood to have had a record-breaking month, with the highest number of sales ever taken at the branch.

Jacqui Rock, Poole Business Improvement District (BID) lead, said: “We were elated to see the Poole Christmas Maritime Light Festival come to life on the opening weekend in mid-November. Accompanied by Choirs at Christmas and the Christmas window display competition, which attracted a record number of entries animating their shop fronts, we really saw the business community come together like never before.

“Whilst there is learning to be gained from the first year, the vision has always been to create a distinctive Christmas destination offer and the overall feedback has gleaned a very positive reaction from everyone towards this goal.

“The initial footfall figures across the town have already given a positive indication that we have seen an increase and the Dolphin Shopping Centre’s figures only go to substantiate what has been a successful festive season.

“We would like to thank BCP Council’s events team who we worked closely with throughout the year to help bring this event to Poole.”