COMPLEMENTARY OFFERINGS IN DESIGNED PARKS: A REVIEW ON THE CURRENT PLANNING APPROACH

Abstract

Designed green spaces play a fundamental role in Singapore as the city-state is pursuing the identity of a ‘City in a Garden’. They serve an essential function to enliven Singapore’s landscape and provide quality spaces for leisure to the community. Consequently, complementary offerings such as recreational rental kiosks and F&B Outlets are introduced to certain parks to enhance the park experiences of users primarily by giving them opportunities to engage in a myriad of lifestyle alternatives. Despite its importance, there are limited studies that look into park users’ attitudes towards the current provisions of complementary services. Hence, this serves as a motivation to review current planning approaches towards complementary offerings from the users’ perspective. This study was conducted on 300 park users to understand their perception of the adequacy of current provisions of offerings in achieving their lifestyle needs. It revealed that park users felt that such are lacking in non-destination regional parks and this affected their park experiences. Specifically, there are demands for more convenience stores, recreational rental kiosks and F&B alternatives, albeit varying sentiments across different age groups. It was also found that the provision of offerings demanded by park users positively correlated with the increased duration of stay, thus emphasizing on the importance of providing the appropriate offerings. Improved park experience can be fostered through providing more complementary offerings that are demanded by park users in non-major regional parks. However, it is essential to understand the socio-economic characteristics of park users frequenting that park and to conduct feasibility and compatibility studies to ensure viability of offerings introduced.