1. Introduction

[1] Submitted that shopping is the most important contemporary social activity. The influence of attachment to places and the power of place as well as an understanding of the space structuring are exploited by designers and developers to facilitate consumption, and therefore increase sales and create jobs. Shopping centres are expected to be sophisticated retail market places, and have a broader and more important role to play. In the opinion of [2], it is a place that provides local residents spaces for consensual and comfortable interaction.

[3], defined shopping centres as probably the most successful land use, development, real estate, and retail business concept of the 20th century. A shopping centre is a highly specialised development activity and is generally developed, managed and owned by firms whose primary concern is shopping and profit. Larger shopping centres are usually managed, developed and owned by firms whose expertise in terms of real estate activity is focused on multi-dimensional commercial activities. Shopping centres can be classified into several types such as the neighbourhood, the community, the regional, the strip, the super-regional, multi-use, ancillary, speciality, and focused centres. However, there are various types of shopping centres in existence in different countries and continents due to preferences.

The travel industry defines persons who travel as visitors [4]. These visitors are persons who travel outside their usual environment for leisure, business, or other purposes, at which point the act of travelling becomes tourism [4]. Tourism is the activities of people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment within a certain period of time especially during holidays and festive periods. Tourist however, usually return to their originating destinations after the period of short adventure.

According to the [5], tourism activities have impacts directly and indirectly into the economy of various countries. Direct tourism include hospitality, transportation, attractions that are linked to leisure, industrial activities, alternative leisure’s business and food-related industries. The indirect impact of tourism activities are linked to public investment, provision of services and products marketing. [6], observed that a major benefit of tourism is its ability to stimulate the economy of tourist destinations through job creation, sales of souvenirs and consumption of local products. Tourism attraction plays a major role in drawing travelers to a destination, [7] described it as a major motivation for visiting a place and stimulants for revisit if the destination features are attractive with greater experiential value. Smith and [8] indicated that experiential value can create appropriate sensory and emotional experiences for tourists, who identify first with their internal perception of the experience. Experiential value plays an intermediary role in the pursuit of satisfying experiences, affecting tourist contentment and loyalty. If customer satisfaction exceeds initial expectations, this influences their feelings about the place and their future behavioral intentions [9]. This paper is aimed at establishing the link between enhanced patronage of shopping malls in Nigeria and addition of tourism attractions especially in the retail outlets within the malls which usually do not enjoy equal patronage as anchor shops.

2. Study Area

Lagos is a city in the Nigerian state of Lagos. Lagos, the former capital and the commercial capital of Nigeria is in the South western geopolitical zone. It is divided into rural and cosmopolitan Lagos. It lies on longitude 6° 27’ 11” N and latitude 3° 23’ 44”E. The metropolitan Lagos, with its adjoining conurbation, is the most populous in Nigeria, and the most populous on the African continent. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and also one of the most populous urban agglomerations. Lagos is a major financial center in Africa; the megacity has the highest GDP, and also houses one of the largest and busiest seaports on the continent.

3. Literature Review

From a process of growth and innovation, as well as early development on vacant sites, the compact shopping centre of today was established [3]. Shopping centres have existed for more than 1000 years in forms of ancient market squares, bazaars and commercial districts at seaports. The shopping centre had its origin in the 1920s. Cinemas, games, outdoor retail, restaurants etc. soon made the shopping centre even more. Entering the 21st century, shopping centres continue to serve the social and economic needs of the community with a combination of fashion, foods, entertainment and services (International Council of Shopping Centres, 2000).

The International council of shopping centers [10] has defined shopping center as a group of retail and other commercial establishments that is planned, developed, owned and managed as a single property, with on-site parking provided. The three main physical configurations of shopping centers are malls, open-air centers and hybrid centers.

When using the term “shopping center” accurately, a shopping center refers to: “A group of architecturally unified commercial establishments built on a site that is planned, developed, owned and managed as an operating unit related in its location, size, and type of shops to the trade area that it serves. The unit provides on-site parking in definite relationship to the types and total size of the stores” [3].

Shopping malls are typically known to be indoor shopping centers, though some have outdoor areas with the shops having their own indoor space [11]. Shopping mall is also described as an urban shopping area limited to pedestrians, with stores and businesses facing a system of enclosed walkways exclusively constructed for pedestrians [12]. It exists in various basic types ranging from neighborhood centers of one or two anchor supermarkets and a few stores, and single store hypermarkets, superstores to bulky goods outlets. The mall form consists of an enclosed area of separate shops integrated by pedestrian walkways, eating establishments and quasi-public mini spaces. [13], opined that shopping centers are one of the few new building types created in contemporary time. Shopping malls play an important role in a retail sector and these malls have been in existence for more than 90 years. To gain the loyalty of shoppers, malls must appeal to consumers’ social motives and experiential needs, not simply provide access to desired goods [14]. Shopping malls today offer fast-food courts, restaurants, video arcades, movie theatres, beauty salons, dental clinics and more. [15], pointed out some different types of shopping malls such as convenience shopping mall, neighborhood shopping mall, community shopping mall, regional shopping mall and super-regional shopping mall. Shopping malls are characterized as venues that provide a comfortable shopping experience and have turned into social centers and recreational and entertainment facilities for various activities [16].

[17] established that customers visit shopping malls not only for searching for particular products, but they also view these visits as leisure and entertainment activity that provides fun and pleasure especially after work and during holidays. Visitors are found to engage in various activities during shopping malls visits in various climes [18].

The word ‘tourism’ emerged from the custom of the English wealthy classes, who sent young people on extensive circuits of continental Europe to finish their education [19]. Now, tourism involves almost all aspects of the human society. It is difficult to have one definition that covers all aspects of tourism. Yet various parties tried to define tourism from different perspectives. [19]. Suggested that the definition of tourism can be classified on the basis of their manifested content into three categories of "economic", "technical", and "holistic".

[20]. defines tourism as an identifiable nationally important industry, which involves a wide cross section of component activities including the provision of transportation, accommodation, recreation, food, and related services. This definition mainly focuses on the economic aspect of tourism. However, as tourism is becoming a multidisciplinary subject, the limitation of this definition is clear.

The most widely accepted technical definition of tourism is proposed by the United Nations in 1963, in which, a “visitor” describes a person who visited a country other than his/her usual place of residence, for any reason other than taking up a remunerated job from within the country visited. However, this definition only included international tourists, while ‘visitors’ today include both international and domestic ones. Therefore, this definition is not complete.

Holistic definitions attempt to embrace “the whole” essence of a subject. According to [21], tourism is the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents. This definition seems to embrace all the essence of tourism.

[22], identified the major benefit of tourism in stimulating economic growth as represented by the increase in the number of available jobs in the tourist destination, both directly and indirectly, within the companies which provide services necessary for tourists. The process of serving tourists appeals to a large and diversified workforce, with a varied skill profile. One of the most visible benefits of tourist activities within a destination is represented by the jobs involved in the direct administration of hotels, restaurants, stores and transportation. Support industries and professions are less visible but contribute substantially to the local economy because these trades are, more often than not, better paid than jobs from the visible category of employment, such as the staff of a restaurant. The creation of new employment opportunities generated by the development of a tourist destination results in an increase in the standard of living among the local population, which, in its turn, leads to an increase in consumer spending.

Tourism also boosts the export of local products. It is estimated that 15-20% of the total tourist expenditure is spent for gifts, clothing, and souvenirs. The extent to which these products are made in the destination area directly affects the local economy. In many tourist destinations, there are markets that sell local crafts. This provides a source of income for local producers and also creates an interesting shopping experience for tourists [23].

Tourist attractions are an essential ingredient for successful tourism destination development [24]. Similarly, [25] asserted that tourism destinations rely on their primary tourism products as mechanisms to pull and motivate tourists to visit them. [26], gave a picture of what attractions are. They include all elements that draw tourists away from their homes and these include sightseeing, activities and experiences. As a caveat to this assertion, [27] suggested that for any phenomenon to qualify to be an attraction, it needs to have three attributes which are; a tourist, a site and an image or marker that popularizes the site. However, a more concise definition is provided by [24] that opined that an attraction is a permanent resource that can either be natural or man-made and whose main purpose of development and management is to attract tourists.

The attractiveness of a tourism destination is often referred to as the opinions of visitors about the destination’s perceived ability to satisfy their needs. Research has shown that attractiveness studies are necessary for understanding the elements that encourage people to travel [28]. The more a destination is able to meet the needs of the tourists, the more the destination is perceived to be attractive and the more the destination is likely to be chosen in preference to competing destinations. Thus, the major value of destination attractiveness is the pulling effect attractiveness has on tourists [29].

4. Methodology

This study adopted a variety of sources to obtain information. A multi-level of quantitative approaches was used to obtain data for analysis through which inferences was made. The sources of information include internet surfing, past researches, interviews and case studies. Cases visited provided the basic knowledge of required facilities in the planning of shopping malls and the various design requirements for such building type. Before the main survey, a plot study was done online among shoppers and regular mall visitors using google forms to ascertain the internal consistency of the research instrument. The study adopts a combination of simple random sampling techniques and Quota sampling. Simple random sampling is another method of selecting a sample in such a way that every unit in the population will have equal chance of being selected in the sample while Quota sampling is a method of collecting a sample on the basis of their strata.

Two categories of respondents were assessed, the respondents for the first category of the questionnaires are shoppers and regular mall visitors while the second category of questionnaires was distributed amongst retail store owners, manager and attendants. The structuring of the questionnaire for category A comprises of 3 sections. Section A comprises of questions which deals with the demographic information about the respondents while the other sections address the specific objective of the study. The total population for category A is 208.

The structuring of the questionnaire for category B comprises of 2 sections. Section A comprises of questions which deals with the demographic information about the respondent, while the other section addresses the specific objective of the study. The total population of questionnaires administered is 100.

5. Data Analysis, Results and Discussions

In order to obtain data for this research, questionnaires were randomly distributed to shoppers around shopping centers in metropolitan Lagos. This data collection took place in March, 2019. Category A: This batch of respondents are shoppers/ visitors to the mall. The aim of this questionnaire is to determine their purposes for visiting the mall and the interests. Category B: This batch of respondents are the retail store owners, manager and attendants. The aim of this questionnaire is to determine their level of patronage as compared to Anchor stores in the mall and also to determine ways of bringing tourist shoppers to the mall.

The primary purposes for visiting shopping malls in the study area indicated in figure 1. The results show that 38.9% of total respondents primarily spent time out in the mall to visit eatery outlets which satisfies their quest for fun rather than hunger. Such places provide spaces for social interaction, hangout and subsequently impact on sales. This buttresses the fact that facilities other than market stores will attract patronage to shopping malls. It was also observed that more than half of the people who patronize the malls (54%) do so to see movies after which they engage in shopping activities. Although a high percentage of respondents in the malls (68.8%) end up shopping, the results indicates that 31.2% of respondents who visit the mall do not engage in any shopping activities. From this analysis, the percentage of respondents who originally visit malls to eat and see movies but end up engaging in shopping activities is high (62.5%). This agree with the findings of [18] that many shoppers engage in some other activities during their visits to malls [30] also pointed out that their extra activities have a way of rubbing positively on sales in the shopping mall. It was also indicated that the inclusion of different games will attract sizeable number of patronage (10.6%). The same number of respondent that primarily visit for eating purpose also do so to meet with friends (38.9%). The habit of window shopping which on its own is an aspect of tourism suggested 29.3% of patronage. Sporting activities that are included in the designs of the shopping malls also attract patronage (2.9%) increase in indoor sporting facilities in the malls are found to increase patronage. Other facilities such as spaces for social interaction (parties) salon and bars attracts patronage to shopping malls (41.4%).

Figure 1. Showing consumer’s purpose for visiting the mall. (Source: Researcher’s Fieldwork, 2019)

In assessing the consumers patronage of retail stores, findings from data gathered from respondents in category A as shown in figure 2 indicate that majority of the respondents visit the shopping mall for the sole purpose of patronizing the anchor stores such as Shoprite. The attraction created by the introduction of cinema constitute significant reason for visiting the mall (42.8%). This suggests that patronage and sales are likely to go up if other attractions are added. This agrees with the findings of [17] that attachment to a place is enhanced by various attractions elements. The survey showed that 60.1% of the respondents sampled patronize anchor store more often. Retail outlets also enjoyed and garnered almost one third 1/3 (29.8%) of patronage and sales despite the imposing stature of this anchor store. Although this is low compared to the sales of the anchor store, the results suggest that their patronage may be due to their accessibility before the anchor store. While more items and cheaper prices will always attract more sales in the anchor store, extra effort is required to increase sales in the retail stores. Other attractions such as eateries, bars, ice cream centers and adopted market squares combined to determine (30.9%) of patronage and sales of items in the shopping malls. From the results in Figure 2, attractions other than the real shopping mall is responsible for 71.7% of patronage (a combination of other attractions with patronage due to cinemas).

Figure 2. Showing assessment of consumer’s perception on retail stores. (Source: Researcher’s Fieldwork, 2019)

The results as shown in Table 1 show that 96% of category B respondents (shop owners, attendants and managers are open to suggestions that can lead to increase in patronage. Only very few of this category (4%) believe in their efforts at promoting sales alone. Also a high significant percentage of respondents (94%) agreed that the inclusion of tourism attraction will increase the number of visitors to the mall which will consequently increase sales. From the survey, it is revealed that 88% of the respondents agree that tourists would increase their sales level as they believe that tourist attractions within a shopping mall would help attract tourist shoppers who would be more willing to patronize the stores.

Table 1. Impact of Tourism Attractions on Sales

Also from the results of the survey carried out, it was discovered that regular mall visitors go to the mall with the intent to visit mostly the anchor stores, leaving the retail stores unpatronised. From the survey, 86% of the staff sampled claimed that their sales are low compared with the anchor stores located in the shopping mall.

6. Conclusions

The study examined the impact of the inclusion of architectural features on sales in shopping malls. Based on the information gathered from the sampled respondents through the administered questionnaire, it can be concluded that the patronage of retail stores within shopping malls is relatively low compared with the anchor stores within the mall. With this in mind, evolving a style that inculcates tourism into the mall will encourage people to spend longer time in the malls thus encouraging the possibility of more sales. A considerable increase in architectural features that will promote gaming activities will increase revisit and patronage of shopping malls in Nigeria. The impact of architectural features that promote social interaction which will consequently impact on patronage is clearly seen in the results. Also to boost the sales of the retail shops, the fusion of tourism oriented architectural features such as aquarium and art galleries at close proximity to retail stores will enhance their patronage, sales and sustain more jobs.