Shopping in the City: Understanding Drivers and Barriers to City Shopping in Launceston, Tasmania

The Shopping in the City project was commissioned by the City of Launceston in early 2019 in response to perceptions amongst some city traders that retailing in the city centre is suffering with a consequent need to examine ways in which city centre shopping could revitalised. The aim of the Shopping in the City project is to provide empirical evidence of the drivers and barriers considered to be important for shopping in the city centre of Launceston, Tasmania. Retail and service business owners/managers operating in the Launceston CBD (within the Cityprom boundary); key stakeholders, and shoppers were surveyed in April 2019. Responses were received from 99 traders, 268 shoppers, 9 key stakeholders from the Launceston business community, and 24 employee stakeholders from the City of Launceston. Data were mainly analysed using Leximancer, a computer-generated software program used for qualitative research.