Keeping track of business

Association president Geoff Parnell recently met the City of Subiaco to recommend a proposal by place-making group A Beautiful City to install 10 people counters along Rokeby Road and Hay Street.

‘The City saw no benefit as they do their own surveys on the street and that was enough,’ he said.

‘They collect over $800,000 in the compulsory business levy every year to promote Subiaco; why not put some of that into measuring whether that promotion works? This data would give us the knowledge to inform marketing decisions and evaluate whether these events and promotions have been successful.’

Subiaco chief executive Stephen Tindale said Visit Subiaco was investigating new people counter technology recently implemented by the City of Fremantle.

‘The mobile phone-based technology counts both the number of people walking past a certain location and tracks their movements and activity while in Subiaco,’ Mr Tindale said.

‘It provides richer data and is roughly one tenth of the cost (of A Beautiful City counters).’

A Beautiful City founder Nicholas Tak�cs said he installed Perth’s first people counter outside Subiaco 7 Day Chemist in May, 2013.

‘We have confirmed a total of more than 1.25 million people in this time. This is extremely valuable for retailers and landlords as it clearly shows the peaks and troughs in daily footfall, the long-term trends and other insights,’ Mr Tak�cs said.

He said A Beautiful City counted more than 1.3 million people each month in its nine main street locations across Perth.

‘The entire community benefits from low vacancy rates, an influx of interesting and unique businesses, keeping essential services growing and high community participation,’ he said.

Town of Claremont acting chief executive Les Crichton said A Beautiful City installed two people counters on Bay View Terrace in 2013, costing $10,000 over two years.

‘We wanted a sense of how many people go down the street and how they’re moving,’ he said.