Fewer people are visiting busy shopping streets in the big Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, according to new research by Bureau RMC and published by broadcaster NOS.

The agency, which uses sensors to assess how many shoppers are passing through a given street, said Amsterdam’s Kalverstraat has been hardest hit, with a 10% drop in numbers. Rotterdam’s Lijnbaan shopping area has seen visitor numbers fall almost 8%.

The Hague, however, has managed to buck the trend, with a slight rise in people spending time in its city centre.  ‘We have spent 20 years investing in making our inner city attractive and that is now paying off,’ Ad Dekkers, of the Bureau Binnenstad Den Haag told the broadcaster.

Nationwide, the number of people shopping in traditional high streets has dropped by 3.5% as the rise in online shopping continues to take hold.

Visitor numbers in shopping areas in smaller cities have been declining for years and experts predict that by 2030, shopping as a leisure activity will be concentrated in 15 to 25 Dutch cities.