THE IMPACTS OF THE CHANGES IN FACILITIES AT MARINE COVE, EAST COAST PARK ON CONSUMERS' BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

Singapore is a fast paced city-state and with an increasing urbanization, there is a pressing need for more open spaces for Singaporeans for relaxation, leisure and recreational purposes. East Coast Park is one of the most popular open spaces in Singapore. Under the Parks and Waterbodies Plan, it was one out of the six parks chosen to be enlarged. The redevelopment of Marine Cove was one of the plans to expand East Coast Park. It includes construction of new facilities, upgrading of existing facilities and a change of tenant mix to accommodate a wider variety of foods at Marine Cove. An evaluation of the impact of changes of facilities in Marine Cove on consumers' behavior would be a good gauge of the characteristics of the consumers, motivations, their current level of consumers' satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The changes were shown to be not only commonly accepted among consumers visiting Marine Cove, but also met more needs of more of them. However, as much as meeting the needs of consumers could boost satisfaction levels, negligence of some other needs of the consumers would bring about dissatisfaction too. These needs could be significant in the consumers' decision-making process and were identified for future developments in Marine Cove or other parts of East Coast Park.