The influence of architectural elements of food courts on users visiting behavior : a questionnaire survey

Abstract EN

Food courts are an architectural element inherent to contemporary malls.

Extensively, food environment studied, in terms of psychological, cognitive and marketing.

The architectural elements of food courts (AEOFC) require further studies.

a field study conducted to determine the subjective evaluation of (AEOFC) from users' perspective, the study occurred in 6 food courts with diverse areas located in various commercial centers area, ranging from 25000 m² to 276000 m² located in Cairo, Egypt.

Based on a questionnaire distributed to 224 users, the relationship between (AEOFC) and visiting behaviors (VB), whether revisiting (RV) or staying long (SL), were verified by the Spearman test.

The most important (AEOFC) that engage visitors are studied by linear regression.

The proposed conceptual framework was validated by Structure Equation Model (SEM).

Pearson Chi-Square test utilized to measure the study variables.

The results indicate that; the décor mood and the food courts' illumination have statically significant predictors for a (RV).

As for the (SL) in the food court, the décor mood is also the most important followed by illumination and colors.

The results illustrated a similarity between the subjective evaluations of the statistical sample groups (gender, age, type of visit and visit period).

The findings illustrate that; Visit day (VD) either weekday or weekends has a correlation with finishes evaluation (FE), décor evaluation (DE).

Besides, visiting time (VT) morning or evening has a correlation with the evaluation of illumination.

Strong relationship between (FE), (DE) and the visit time (VT).

Eventually, the visit time (VT) has a strong relationship with (RV) (SL).