INTEGRATED RESORT'S RETAIL AND ENTERTAINMENT SPACE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON VISITOR'S SATISFACTION (MARINA BAY SANDS AND RESORT WORLD SENTOSA)

Abstract

Integrated Resort developments, being a coined term by the Singapore Tourism Board, marks the increasing emphasis of tourism as an engine for growth in the country. Having two Integrated Resorts (Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and Resort World Sentosa (RWS)) being proposed and built at the same time and offering the same leisure concept to visitors, intense competition for visitor footfall is prevalent. Even though there are many literature on tourism research available in the academic field, they are hardly studies in the Singapore context. This dissertation aims to first examine the methods of balanced and controlled planning of spaces within the resort projects. Next, through the detailed study of MBS and RWS, identify the factors that serve to enhance visitors’ satisfaction in an IR. Hence, this study hopes to assist the current management of the IRs and future resort developers to plan the spatial attributes within the resort through understanding the factors which satisfy and enhance visitors’ experience. This dissertation sourced information through primary and secondary data. The analysis of the information was done with a regression model, study of mean scores and correlation. It was found from the regression model that family friendliness and appearance and atmosphere were the main determining factors that affected visitors’ satisfaction. This proved the emerging importance of family users in leisure destinations. The correlation had highlighted improvements that family visitors preferred. Through the study of means, it was discovered that RWS had garnered the better rating and satisfaction score compared to MBS. This was established as the RWS iii means for overall enjoyment, willingness to revisit and recommendation of resort to others were all higher than MBS. Recommendations such as safety elements to achieve family friendliness, circular layout, art installations and affordable retail were proposed to improve the IR’s competitive edge.