sustainability Article What Makes an Old Market Sustainable? An Empirical Analysis on the Economic and Leisure Performances of Traditional Retail Markets in Seoul Yun-Myong Yi 1 ID and Tae-Hyoung Tommy Gim 1,2,3,* 1 Environmental Planning Institute, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea;
[email protected] 2 Department of Environmental Planning, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea 3 Interdisciplinary Program in Landscape Architecture, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +82-2-880-1459; Fax: +82-2-871-8847 Received: 15 April 2018; Accepted: 22 May 2018; Published: 29 May 2018 Abstract: Traditional retail markets have long been the center for urban vitality, yet they have been under threat of advancing superstores run by corporate retailers. Studies have attempted to identify the competitiveness of the markets, but empirical evidence is not sufficient for presenting which factors contribute to the maintenance of a traditional market’s economic vitality. In South Korea, urban policies have been directed to revitalizing the markets, but their effectiveness has been questioned. This study aims to fill this void by examining traditional markets in Seoul with multiple regression on (1) the revenue and (2) the volume of customers and with negative binomial regression on (3) the popularity measured by the number of blog posts on the markets. Using a comprehensive set of variables, this paper finds that investments in physical infrastructure (p < 0.000) and organizational/operational capacities (p < 0.008 and p < 0.094) make a significant contribution to the economic vitality.