What makes a city centre attractive from a consumer perspective? : A comparison between residents and visitors of Kristianstad city centre

Abstract: A current problem is that city centres are suffering due to the intensified competition from other shopping places, such as neighbouring cities and external shopping malls. Previous research emphasize retail as the most contributing factor to an attractive city centre. However, other attributes have proved to be important as well. The purpose of the thesis is to develop a framework that explains different attributes for city centre attractiveness, and explain if residents and visitors differ in regard to satisfaction of city centres. The attributes that will measure city centre attractiveness are retail, accessibility, amusement, activities and atmosphere. The research is done in an explaining context and the research philosophy is positivistic with a deductive approach. The quantitative method was face to face questionnaires conducted on 100 consumers in the Swedish city centre Kristianstad. The findings of the study revealed that city centre attractiveness is positively affected by retail, amusement, activities and atmosphere. Accessibility did not show any statistical significant impact on the attractiveness of city centres. Moreover, residents and visitors did not differ in regard to satisfaction of Kristianstad city centre. The main limitation of this study is that only one city centre is examined. However, the contributions are that retail proved to be important in city centres, but not as important as amusement, activities and atmosphere. Furthermore, the study contributes by discovering that residents and visitors are equally satisfied with Kristianstad city centre. The findings can be useful for Kristianstad city centre as well as other Swedish municipalities.