Research Proposal

“What are the impacts of branding a location as leisure shopping destination on its tourism industry and its local economy?

Leisure retail and leisure shopping are two sides of the same coin. In fact leisure retail enables leisure shopping. Leisure retail can be attributed to the shops that “that attract shoppers to spend some of their free time browsing and shopping” (collinsdictionary.com, 2019).

It means that these retailers design their shops and their selection of products in such a way that encourages the shoppers to spend time in the shop and browse through their collection.

Sale of the products seem a distant undertone in the procedure and leisure and comfort in shopping for the items takes a more primary focus for the consumer. (Davis, 2013)
Analysing the Business Decision or Problem

Leisure shopping on the other hand pertains to the act of engaging in shopping in these outlets that enables the shoppers to take their time and enjoy the process rather than the result (Perera, 2018). This has traditionally been the method of performing outdoor activity for those of the upper sections of the income spectrum, mostly women.

Women who had back then only to look forward to child rearing and unpaid home work, mostly viewed shopping as an outlet for experiencing service for themselves and the buying of product turned secondary and the act of going out turned primary activity. The act of shopping leisurely turned into a status symbol in those days. (Tarnoff, 2017)

Leisure shopping tourism is another important factor that needs to be analysed. It has in a vey short period of time captured the imaginations of a lot of destinations as having a potential for growing their tourism industry and create employments.

As it is mostly based on experience over product, the need for man power increases and is extremely important as well (pondiuni.edu.in, 2019). This phenomenon has been inciting major transformations among the respective cities and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.

Shopping tourism is definitely not exclusive to urban localities, but it is rather spread out over conditions and destinations which offer the patrons things like conditions different from their place of living, exclusivity of the destination or the overall availability and price. (theshopping-tourism.es, 2015)

Leisure shopping drives on certain visual and experiential activities involving the pleasure of window shopping and going through products; it is an activity that is organised mostly for shopping for clothes and accessories that may be referred to as “fun shopping”(Gravari-Barbas, 2013).

A whole lot of destinations all over the world including Europe, U.S., and Asia have already projected and placed themselves as leisure shopping destinations. They include places that are considered the fashion capitals of the world like London, Paris and New York (Muslu, 2015). Also, a lot of cities and neighbourhoods that are rich in a high presence of traditional or ethnic shops have also arisen over the course of time.

Additionally, a whole range of cities have been developed that are characterised by the presence of several hypermodern shops or “fake villages” to entice shoppers to come in and spend time there(Hsieh and Chang, 2006). Buying of a product itself seems secondary but the business of services is the major draw. These are all designed to engage shoppers in a multi-tiered consumption sprees.

These destinations vary on the type of image they project very widely. Some base their branding on some historical relevance that they may have, others develop totally hyper modern “malls of the future” to engage public interest.

An image has been created in each case to “sell” these cities worldwide and attract consumers of services, commodities and experiences by establishing urban branding as a marking strategy in most of such capital cities across the world (MacKenzie, et. al., 2013).

Shopping or more accurately leisure shopping has turned into every pervasive activity that is done daily by millions of people worldwide. Shopping trips for this type of shopping is not always associated with the purchase of goods but rather booth number of social personal motives (Rajagopal, 2010).

According research leisure shopping emphasizes more on the enjoyable use of time without giving associated the actual sale of products or services.

Light off practices coming into relevance retailers have started to appreciate the multiplicity of motives windows retailers who have been better at it has better potential to generate value for their customers. Further the entertainment part of shopping is being more and more recognised part of the experience and also key competitive tool (Newman, 2017).

To be able to clearly address the scope of all elements that makes up an enticing experience for the potential consumer, cooperation between the individual retailers of such experiences and the specific ‘Destination Management Organizations’ is crucial.

Destination Management Organisations (DMO) or the tourist boards in such places has the task of creating and implementing a strategic approach to link up and advertise sometimes very separate commodities for the enhance management of the destination.

This sort of coordinated and cohesive management of all elements like amenities, marketing, attractions, pricing and access is extremely important for providing a cohesive and engaging experience for the consumer. (World Tourism Organization, 2014).

The growing interest in shopping among tourists can be explained by the rising demand in their activities of leisure or in general, the desire to experience new places. New demands and new behavioural patterns are being created through a series of interconnected cultural, social and economic trends. As a result of this many areas of shopping developed in order to attract more and more tourists(Ryan, et. al., n.d.).

The necessity of shopping tourism has widely been acknowledged as it has become very productive concept for the industry of tourism even though not much is known about the expectations of the tourists as well as their actual behaviour.

The patterns of the expenditure of the tourists have been studied in the past. (Baruah and Sarma, 2015) Shopping tourism can be analysed by taking into consideration of the indicators such as the nature of the purchases, the motives of the visitors, the nature of company during a particular shopping visit among other personal characteristics.

Furthermore, a fair share of external circumstances are also assumed to play a role in shopping tourism and this includes the time of the year or the weather conditions. For instance, it may be argued that leisure shopping is at its maximum during the Christmas season. (Lyck, et. al., n.d.)

Various surveys have been conducted with regard to the behaviour of the visitors in which it has been found that there is a connection between the duration of the visit as well as the dimension of the leisure activities (Pressman, et. al., 2009).

It has been observed that the longest a person loiters around in the area of shopping he or she generally tend to engage himself or herself in other activities such as cultural activities, going to the cinemas or having a meal or a drink. Also, the longer that a tourist stays at a particular place, the more he is expected to spend. (Kreag, n.d.)

The overall Research Design – Evaluating Options

This research will primarily be focused upon the connection between shopping, leisure and tourism. The study is primarily based upon the secondary research which was conducted in the past in this regard and upon the assumptions made after the review of literature. The study would also answer the question as to what are the possible aspects that need to be looked upon in certain areas of shopping as a possible resource for tourism.

This would be the central question which will be connected to a series of factors that would be able to explain as to why certain areas of shopping in a way that shopping is considered as a leisure activity. This study would also reflect upon the following:

1. The perception and activities related to leisure shopping.
2. Leisure environment as a possible attraction for tourists.
3. Leisure shopping as possible resource for tourism.

In accordance to the results which were found in the researches done in the past, this particular discussion of leisure shopping would be connected to the perception of an environment, the actual activities as well as the level of attractiveness of a certain environment.

The researches that have been done in the past suggest that a strong connection exists in between the environmental setting, the perception as well as the behaviour.

This particular research will question the necessity of developing a certain area as a shopping destination so as to attract tourists. As of now, not many studies have been conducted which would provide a hint towards the conditions and characteristics.

This research will also try to answer the question as to when, where and how can a certain environment of shopping act as an attraction for tourists. In the following research, a number of conditions have been taken note of.

The objective of the research  is to find out various related to the functional aspects of the retailing side of the leisure shopping industry and also the impact of the growth and marketing of destinations as leisure shopping destinations on its tourism industry. Therefore the research question that is proposed in doing the proposed research is :

“What are the impacts of branding a location as leisure shopping destination on its tourism industry and its local economy?”

What are the key variables and How will you measure them?

In order to carry out this study, extensive secondary research will be carried out including articles and academic journals which have spoken in detail about the tourism industry as well as the relevance of leisure shopping in boosting tourism.

We would also then conduct an empirical and theoretical analysis upon the articles and research journals in coherence to the impact of leisure shopping upon the tourism sector.  This would also help us in understanding how the branding of a location as leisure shopping destination impacts the tourism industry and its local economy.

Even though the articles were classified either empirically or theoretically, the classifications which occur inside all these perspectives will not be thought of as being mutually exclusive. Therefore, each article would be used in various different categories.

Sample Requirements and Sampling Options

The study will be conducted in four specific leisure shopping malls and resorts in and around the area. The selected regions and malls have been taken into consideration based on the mixed demographic of people that visit the areas.

This will help in providing proper sampling of all ages to enquire as to the affect of these branding schemes by the local government and also the experience they faced in the malls.

The sample is to be acquired through the use of purposive sampling by handing out and asking to fill up questionnaires to the people there. The recruitment calls will be sent out to the available populations after getting the permission from the institutions to allow the patrons to be involved in the research and promising that the confidentiality of data collected from them will be strictly adhered to.

The patrons will also be told the importance of doing this research and proper efforts will be take to make sure that all biases that occur in the process are taken into consideration.

Ethical considerations

Among the main ethical issues in the said proposal would be to ensure that the confidentiality, privacy and the consent of the tourists or the visitors are maintained.

It order to carry out the research it will also be important to ensure that the articles and research journals are being empirically and theoretically analysed in the correct manner and that the findings are not deliberately twisted in order to suit the objectives and the purpose of the current research.

Also, it will be ensured that the authors of the research materials which will be analysed in the study are given their due credit through citations.

The research would draw a comparison between the impact of the leisure shopping in the tourism industry. It would also try to provide answers to the questions of if leisure shopping impacts the overall revenue which is generated through tourism in various cities and if the behavioural patterns have an impact upon tourism.

The study is primarily based upon the secondary research which was conducted in the past in this regard and upon the assumptions made after the review of literature.

The study would also answer the question as to what are the possible aspects that need to be looked upon in certain areas of shopping as a possible resource for tourism. This would be the central question which will be connected to a series of factors that would be able to explain as to why certain areas of tourism is boosted as a result of leisure shopping.

In accordance to the results which were found in the researches done in the past, this particular discussion of leisure shopping would be connected to the perception of an environment,

the actual activities as well as the level of attractiveness of a certain environment. The researches that have been done in the past suggest that a strong connection exists in between the environmental setting, the perception as well as the behaviour.

References

Baruah, U.K. and Sarma, M.K. (2015), Tourists Expenditure on Shopping & Souvenirs: An Analysis of Association(s) Across Trip Typologies, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://amity.edu/UserFiles/admaa/229Paper%203.pdf

Choi, M.J., Heo, C.Y. and Law, R. (2015), Progress in Shopping Tourism, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275250887_Progress_in_Shopping_Tourism

Collinsdictionary.com (2019), Definition of ‘leisure retail’, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/leisure-retail

Davis, L.C. (2013), African American women’s use of cosmetics products in relation to their attitudes and self identity, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4215&context=etd

Hsieh, A. And Chang, J. (2006), Shopping and Tourist Night Markets in Taiwan, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223521378_Shopping_and_Tourist_Night_Markets_in_Taiwan

http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/sites/all/files/pdf/am9-shopping-report_v2.pdf

Kreag, G. (n.d.), The Impacts of Tourism, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/tourism/pdfs/ImpactsTourism.pdf

Lyck, L., Long, P. And Grige, A.X. (n.d.), Tourism, Festivals and Cultural Events in Times of Crisis, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://www.encatc.org/media/287-tourism_festivals_and_cultural_events_in_times_of_crisis.pdf

MacKenzie, I., Meyer, C. And Noble, S. (2013), How retailers can keep up with consumers, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/how-retailers-can-keep-up-with-consumers

Muslu, S. (2015), Top 5 Fashion Capitals of Europe, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://www.studentuniverse.com/blog/world-travel/top-5-fashion-capitals-of-europe

Newman, D. (2017), Improving Customer Experience Through Customer Data, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2017/04/04/improving-customer-experience-through-customer-data/#7195206c4e64

Perera, K.J.T., and Sutha, J. (2018), Factors Influence on Consumers’ Leisure Shopping Behaviour in Shopping Malls and Its Future Research Direction-Literature Review, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0218/ijsrp-p7424.pdf

pondiuni.edu.in (2019), AN OVERVIEW OF RETAILING, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from http://www.pondiuni.edu.in/storage/dde/downloads/markiii_rm.pdf

Postconsumers Content Team (2017), When Did Shopping Become a Leisure Activity? And More Importantly, Why Is That Dangerous?, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from, https://www.postconsumers.com/2017/05/23/leisure-shopping/

Pressman, S.D., Mattews, K.A., Cohen, S., Martire, L.M., Schier,M., Baum, A. And Schulz, R. (2009), Association of Enjoyable Leisure Activities With Psychological and Physical Well-Being, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2863117/

Rajagopal (2010), Coexistence and conflicts between shopping malls and street markets in growing cities: Analysis of shoppers’ behaviour, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/rlp.2010.17

Ryan, B., Bloms, J., Hovland, J. and Scheler, D. (n.d.), Tourism and Retail Development, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/G3713.pdf

Tarnoff, B. (2017), The new status symbol: it’s not what you spend – it’s how hard you work, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/24/new-status-symbol-hard-work-spending-ceos

theshopping-tourism.es (2015), The new era of travel retail: Impact and challenges October 2015, viewed on 31-05-2019. Retrieved from, https://theshopping-tourism.es/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/EY-Shopping-Tourism-report.pdf

World Tourism Organization (2014), AM Reports, Volume eight – Global Report on Shopping Tourism, UNWTO, Madrid.