The purpose of this study is to analyze spatial linkage among retail facilities by using the trip chaining data of shopping behavior on weekend in urban center of Fukuoka City surveyed by Fukuoka University Institute of Quantitative Behavioral Informatics for City and Space Economy. The results of analyses are summarized as follows.
First, single-stop shopping trips occupy only twenty percentage of the whole outdoor travel. Four retail facilities are visited on average in one outdoor travel. Second, it becomes clear that Zones 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Tenjin underground center attract the most pedestrians. The second attractive facilities are department stores such as Mitsukoshi and Daimaru and major retail facilities like Solaria Plaza which are adjacent to the Tenjin underground center.
Third, the facilities which tend to be visited first in the outdoor travel are department stores such as Iwataya Main Building, Mitsukoshi, and Daimaru, isolated major retail facility like Ohpa, and Zones 3 and 4 of the Tenjin underground center which are considered as the gateways to urban center connected to railway stations. Conversely the facilities which tend to be visited last are the department stores and the isolated major retail facility.
Fourth, Zones 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Tenjin underground center have the strongest attractive power and trickle-down effect. These Zones have strong trip chaining which amounts to an inflow of more than fifty shoppers each other.
Fifth, it is seen that a kind of hierarchy is formed by trip chaining among department stores and major retail facilities located in Tenjin area. Mitsukoshi and Daimaru-Elgara are positioned at the highest level in the hierarchy.
Sixth, it is noticed that the department stores such as Mitsukoshi and Iwataya Main Building and major retail facilities like Tenjin Core and Solaria Plaza gain large amount of expenditure from pedestrians, while the Tenjin underground center does not receive the amount of expenditure in proportion to the inflow of pedestrians.
It is summarized as a conclusion that the Tenjin underground center ranging from north to south in urban center of Fukuoka City attracts large amount of pedestrian flows and especially pedestrians generated from Zones 1 and 2 flow as shoppers into Mitsukoshi or Tenjin Core adjoined to west side or to east side respectively, and then diffuse to Solaria Plaza and Iwataya Main Building located at west side to Mitsukoshi.
JEL Classification: R12, R14, D12
