Evaluation of Local Development Effects Induced by Commercial Area Development:A Case Study of Nei-Wan

Evaluation of Local Development Effects Induced by Commercial Area Development: A Case Study of Nei-Wan

Yu, Chein-Hui
Master’s Thesis of Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT
The regeneration of old city center has been an important area of urban development nowadays in Taiwan. In order to regenerate traditional commercial areas, the Department of Commerce has promoted a series of plans since 1995, including "Project of molding the image bazaar," "Project of developing the shopping streets," and “Business environment visual design", their results need to be evaluated. This research takes Nei-Wan as an example to investigate the effects of implemented projects which renewed and reconstructed the commercial areas.
This research analyzes the changes of Nei-Wan’s commercial environment and the growth in tourists through field visiting and secondary data. By means of questionnaires, the research investigates the evaluations from the tourists and retailers of Nei-Wan commercial area in four aspects, i.e. industry, society, environment and the local marketing.
The result of this study shows that the commercial area regeneration project in Nei-Wan has resulted significant economic impacts. And the conclusions of the research are as follows:
(1) The commercial area renewal plan upgraded the whole Nei-Wan area development.
(2) The commercial environment has the interaction effect with sightseeing development.
(3) Local characteristic forming and marketing would be the most important factors of the local development.
Finally, this research suggests that Nei-Wan commercial area combine local ecological resources and cultural characteristics and ensure the sustainability of the ecotourism. In order to maintain the recreation quality, this area should control the number of tourists. Besides, this area should adopt a strategy of marketing segmentation to differentiate itself from other commercial areas.
Keywords: Commercial Area Development, Local Development, Tourism and Recreation, Nei-Wan.