A Study on the Catering Consumption Patterns in Cultural Parks with Financially Self-sustained Operation

• Main Authors: Yi-Fu Chen, 陳一夫
• Other Authors: Chien-Yuan Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4z52ct

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 建築與城鄉研究所 === 102 === The development and operation of cultural park is one of the important ways to promote cultural and creative industries in major cities in the world. Some of the cultural parks are operated with financially self-sustained requirement such as Huashan Creative Park and Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei. As a result, part of the space have to be used for commercial purpose such as restaurant and retail, however, how much of spaces to be used for catering service becomes a political issue without academic analysis. It is argued in this study that the financial constraints should be recognized before any further policy debate on how much of space should be used for catering service. Based on the operator viewpoint of cultural parks with financially self-sustained requirement, this research is to investigate and analyze the consumption patterns of catering service in both Huashan and Songshan cultural parks in Taipei so that findings can be applied to the future planning and management of cultural parks. Through visitors’ consumption experience of cultural and creative product, cultural parks can foster creative talent to develop cultural and creative industries. While most of previous studies focused on the creating and producing activities, this study aims at the consumption patterns of visitors and influencing factors in cultural park, with focus on catering facilities. In addition to the discussion of important performance differences among various consumption patterns, the role and influence of catering facilities in cultural parks will be identified. In this study, based on the viewpoints of visitor, creative talent and park operator, an analytical framework is developed to evaluate the function of catering facilities, including experience, production and market. Both Huashan Creative Park and Songshan Cultural and Creative Park are used as targets for case study, by means of questionnaire survey and the application of Important Performance Analysis (IPA), the visitors’ consumption preferences of catering facilities are identified. It is found that catering is the most popular and profitable among various park activities. It is evident that catering facilities is the financial engine for both cultural parks. Through Important Performance Analysis of visitors, both physical experience and mental relaxation and creative experience are important and satisfactory functions. Networking in productive function is important and satisfactory for visitors for working purpose. Based on the statistics of cluster analysis, consumption patterns can be divided into 3 groups, namely, “Cultural Activity Oriented Group”; “Dining Oriented Group”; and “Environmental Experience Oriented Group”, each group has shared about 30% of the total visitors. Their characters are as follows: 1.Cultural Activity Oriented Group: Visitors in this group spend the most in buying tickets of cultural activities and most of them also consume in dining. They are mainly attracted by cultural activities and shopping experience in the cultural park. Most visitors in this group are young people who are under 24 years old students and self-employed. More than half of them work in cultural and creative industry and almost 70% of them belong to creative class. Over 90% in this group come for leisure with friends. Taking out of foods is preferred than dining in restaurant. 2.Dining Oriented Group: Visitors in this group spend the most in dining. They are attracted by the environment, dining, shopping experience in the cultural park. The age of visitors in this group is diversed and most of them are office-worker, student, housekeeper and retired people. Over 90% of this group come to culture park for leisure with their family and friends. They prefer dining in restaurant than taking foods out. 3.Environmental Experience Oriented Group: Visitors in this group spend least in both dining and buying tickets for cultural activities. They are attracted to the cultural park mainly for environmental experience. Around 40% more of them work in cultural and creative industry and almost 80% of them belong to creative class. Over 70% of the visiting purpose in this group is for leisure; 20% more of them is for working. In summary, to satisfy the visitors’ leisure needs with different consumption types, cultural parks have to provide cultural activities to attract visitors, and then demand for catering and shopping can be derived to bring in financial income. In other words, cultural activities are the keys to attract visitors while dining is only the second place. However, it is evident that catering facilities have brought in both benefits of financial income and public cultural experience in cultural parks. It is suggested that based on operational requirement in different stage of life cycle, and to cope with the type of cultural and creative industry included, more flexibility should be provided for park planners and operators in their arrangement of catering services in cultural parks.