“We recently launched the FOMO Fridays campaign, to incentivise people back into the CBD,” he said.
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“That will have great appeal to younger cohorts because it involves starting your weekend a little bit earlier, working in the city on a Friday and then going out drinking and dining.
“We believe that will have some impact but the biggest circuit breaker will be the reopening of international borders ... without tourists and international students, foot traffic will remain relatively low.”
CBRE used Pathzz technology – mobile signal data taken from apps on more than 35 million mobile devices in Australia – to come up with its findings, and the firm’s head of retail analytics, Matt Copus, said the trend of young people staying out of the CBD was pronounced in Sydney too.
“This [in Sydney and Melbourne] is much starker than we’re seeing on average across the country,” Mr Copus said.
“It’s important to remember that we’re seeing less students and less backpackers in the country over this period. That’s going to disproportionately impact this.
“We’re seeing this age group disproportionately impacted by a restructuring and work from home. There’s also a stronger adoption to online [shopping] from these customers as well.”
Eloise Murphy-Hill, 20, from Seddon and Ansam Farag, 21 from Braybrook were catching up on Swanston Street for a Friday afternoon hangout, but that is not something that often happens these days, with money tight and social habits changed in the wake of the pandemic.
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“I feel like recreational and social time is a thing that’s not happening as much now and adding the city into that equation just makes it less and less appealing because of how expensive it is,” Ms Farag said.
“Public transport is expensive, a coffee costs $5.”
Ms Murphy-Hill, whose work as a swimming teacher vanished in the pandemic, said she and others in her friendship groups simply could not afford to go to the city very often.
“My ability to go out, especially in the city where everything is more expensive, is way down,” she said.
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