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Candidate personal code: fxl661

School Code: 3071

Word count: 2341

Research Question: To investigate the tourist core Kampong Glam, Singapore

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Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………………….

Methodology ……………………………………………………………….

1. Concentration of Tourist Facilities ……………………………….

2. Pedestrian Count ………………………………………………….
3. Environmental Index ………………………………………………

Data Presentation and Analysis …………………………………………

1. Concentration of Tourist Facilities ……………………………….

2. Pedestrian Count …………………………………………………..
3. Environmental Index ………………………………………………

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….

Evaluation ………………………………………………………………......

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1. Introduction

S E

Figure 1: Map of Singapore W

5 km

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W E

100 m

Figure 2. A map of Kampong Glam, Singapore

Singapore is one of the most prosperous developed countries that benefits a lot from
tourism with a mixed taste of Chinese, Indian and Malay heritage. In this geography
fieldwork, the area of study will be identifying the impacts of tourism on Kampong Glam,
Singapore, a famous tourist attraction which has an eclectic blend of Malay history,
culture and a super-trendy lifestyle scenery. Kampong Glam consists a variety of rich
heritage remains such as old school, places of worship, monuments. During festive
season like Ramadan (Muslim fasting month) leading up to Hari Raya Aidilfitri,
Kampong Glam will truly come alive and filled with bustling celebration and carnivals,

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attracting not only the locals but also a number of tourists. Figure 1 and 2 are the maps
of Singapore and Kampong Glam – the area of study respectively.

Purpose and Aim of the Fieldwork:

The aim of this fieldwork is to explore the tourist development in Kampong Glam,
Singapore and how it compares and differs in different areas. In order to achieve this
purpose, separate characteristics of Kampong Glam will be assessed to point out the
any relevant or new trends and patterns of the area.

Subsequently, the acquired information will be then used to compare with the
hypotheses shown below so as to prove or disprove.

Research Question:

The following research question focuses on Part 2 of the Optional Topic E, “Leisure,
Sport and Tourism” and the research question is “To investigate the tourist core
Kampong Glam, Singapore”. In order to answer this question, the following data
collection methods will be used:

1. Concentration of Tourist Facilities

2. Pedestrian Count
3. Environmental Index

Hypotheses:

1. Tourist facilities will increase as you move towards the Kampong Glam core.
2. The density of pedestrians will increase as you move towards the Kampong
Glam core.
3. The environmental state will deteriorate as you move closer towards the
Kampong Glam core.

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2. Methodology
2.1 Concentration of Tourist Facilities
The data had been conducted at any time either on the 25 th or 27th of March and
it is considered as primary data. In the allocated sections, the student had to
survey the central area of the road while walking down it. The student would then
survey the buildings on the side of a chosen street and tally the tourist and local
facilities onto the survey form. To prevent the mistake of double counting, the
student only observe the building from the outside.

Figure 5. Land Use Tally

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2.2 Pedestrian Count

The data collection was taken place on the 25th of February 2016 (weekday) and
the 27th of February 2016 (weekend), from 4.30pm to 4.55pm and from 7.00pm
to 7.25pm.

29 students were respectively allocated to 29 specific locations to carry out the

survey. The students then simultaneously counted the number of pedestrians
who crossed in front of them within their assigned location in the given 5 minutes
and recorded it down in the survey form shown below in figure 3. The process
was consisted of a fixed set of three separate counts within a 5-minute duration,
and in between, 5-minute intervals of break.

Systematic sampling was used as pedestrians are counted within a fixed and
standardized period of time of 5-minute duration. Stratified sampling was used
as the student for each zone went to the central point of the street to conduct a
pedestrian count survey in either direction on both sides of the road they are
standing by. An example of location is shown in figure 4 below.

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Figure 3. Pedestrian Count

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20 21

19 22
18

Figure 4. Example of location for pedestrian count survey

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2.3 Environmental Index

The data could have been collected on either 25 th or 27th March at an unfixed

time. The students then observe the environmental quality of their allocated

locations around their standing positions by looking at a survey called bi-polar

survey where the indicators range from -2 to +2. A positive score on any

requirements means that the area has a relatively good environmental quality

whereas a negative score has a relatively poor environmental quality. The score

was then added up based on the students’ subjective opinion about the place.

Therefore it reflects the level of human activities within the areas.

Stratified sampling was used to collect primary data because it was

standardized to make the judgement only on the major roads of each zone.

Figure 6. Environmental Index

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3. Data Presentation
3.1 Concentration of Tourist Facilities

A bar graph was plotted out of it and shown on figure 9 below.

120%

100%
100% 94%
% tourist facilities out of total land use

88% 88%

80% 75% 75% 77%

70%

60% 55% 57%

53%
50% 50% 50%
47% 47%
40% 39%
40%
33% 33%
26%
22%
19% 17%
20%

0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
zone

Figure 9. Percentage of tourist facilities out of the total number of

facilities from area 1 to 29

In addition to bar graphs, the percentage of tourist facilities out of total land use
in their specific areas was presented more clearly using pie charts shown on
figure 10 below.

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Figure
Tourist10. Tourist facilities vs. Local facilities for each area
Facilities
W E

Local Facilities
S
22%

78%

25%

75%

50% 50%

33%

100%

67%

47%
53% 40%

47%
53%

60%

19%

81% 45%

55%
47%

53%

100%
39%

50% 50%

100%
61%

6%
100% 94%

43%

57% 33%

25% 67%
17%

100%

75%

100% 83%
23%

12%

77%
50% 50%

12%

88%

100 m
26%
88%

74%

As a result, two core areas are outlined and drawn on figure 11 below.

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100 m

Figure 11. Core Area determined by concentration of tourist facilities

3.2 Pedestrian Count

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The data collected on two different days (weekday and weekend) had been
processed and the average pedestrian count at each location was calculated
and plotted respectively on the bar charts in figure 7 and 8 below.

90
79
80

70
64
Number of pedestrian

60
49 49
50
43
40 36 36
32 33
29 27 29
30
24 23
20 18
15 15
11 11 10 12 12 12
9
10
1 1 1 3 2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Area Number

Figure 7. The average number of pedestrian counts at each area in a weekday

160 151

140
121
120
Number of pedestrian

100 95 94

79
80 72
68
59 58
60 55
47 50
42 41
40 33
27
22
18 16
20 15 11 11 12
10
2 2 2 5 2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Area Number

Figure 8. The average number of pedestrian counts at each area on weekend

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The average pedestrian count at each location for a weekday and weekend was
calculated separately and plotted respectively in figure 9 and 10 on the next
page and isolines were drawn at intervals of 10.

S E

100 m

Figure 9. Isolines of pedestrian count for weekday

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S E

100 m

Figure 10. Isolines of pedestrian count for weekend

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S E

100 m

Figure 11. Core are determined by Pedestrian Count

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3.3 Environmental Index

The environmental scores were processed and presented in the bar graph
shown on figure 12. The higher the value, the better the environmental quality for
that area.
10 9

8 7 7
6 6
6 5 5 5 5
Environmental Index Score

4 4
4
2 2 2
2 1
0 0 0
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
-2 -1 -1
-2
-4 -3 -3
-4 -4 -4
-6
-6 -6 -6
-8

Area Number

Figure 12. Environmental Index Score for each area

The bar graph in figure 12 demonstrates that most areas have positive
environmental index scores and the average is calculated to be 1.03.

For the sake of easy analysis, the environmental quality scores were broken
down into 4 categories: -10 to -5, which indicates a very poor environmental
condition whereas with the ranges -5 to 0, 0-5 and 5-10, it indicates excellent
environmental conditions. On figure 13 next page, the roads in different areas
were coloured differently in red, yellow, green and blue for each respective
categories.

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N KEY

S E -10 -5 0 5 10
Environmental Index Score
W

100 m

Figure 13. Environmental quality score

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S E

100 m

Figure 14. Core are determined by Environment Quality

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4. Data Analysis
4.1 Concentration of Tourist Facilities

The data had been collected from land use tally survey form for each specific
area and was then broken down into two categories as the total local facilities
and total tourist facilities. My hypothesis is that “Tourist facilities will increase as
you move towards the Kampong Glam core”, therefore only the total of tourist
facilities will be taken into account. The concentration of tourist facilities at each
location is represented by the percentage of tourist facilities out of the total
number of facilities. The percentage was calculated by:

tourist facilities
×100 %
tourist facilities+local facilities

Figure 9 and 10 shown above give a clear pattern which enables us to identify
the tourist core of Kampong Glam as we compare between tourist facilities and
local facilities.

The average concentration of tourist facilities in the area is calculated to be 45%.

It can be seen that there is low to no concentration of tourist facilities in the
alleys of the Sultan Mosque, Arab Street, Baghdad Street and Aliwal Street, as
they all have below 33% of tourist facilities. Moving away from these areas, the
concentration of tourist facilities is generally on the rise.

As we can see, the area around Symmetry, Bussorah Street, and the area
moving towards Haji Lane are notably high in percentage tourist facilities, above
50%, excluding Haji Lane where else the surrounding areas such as the alley in
Aliwal Street and Victoria Street are lower, which would suggest two separate
core areas. This may also indicate a higher influx of tourists within the area of
Bussorah Street (whereby 94% of tourist facilities).

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There also seems to be an anomaly on the upper alley of Aliwal Street, whereby
there is a 100% concentration of tourist facilities. Its surrounding areas along
Jalan Sultan have a significantly lower concentration of tourist facilities, which
indicate that the area is not one of high tourist concentration, it is thus
unexpected for there to have such a 100% concentration of tourist facilities
there. The reason for this can be the lack of shops in this alley, there maybe one
or two shops in the area offering tourist services, hence result in 100%
concentration of tourist facilities.

Another anomaly would be Haji Lane. The areas around Haji Lane, going
towards Bussorah Street all contain 50% concentration and above, but Haji Lane
only has 26%. This could be due to the high density of tourist facilities in the
surrounding streets that makes the demand for goods and services fall in Haji
Lane despite a large number of visitors go to Haji Lane.
Consequently, it can be seen that with the more tourists, the higher
concentration of tourist facilities will be. With the analysis of all diagrams above,
it can be assumed the area from Bussorah Street to Haji Lane, which has the
highest average number of tourist facilities, will have density of tourists.

4.2 Pedestrian Count

The isolines that were drawn in figure 9 and 10 above allows us to observe
the trend to identify the boundaries of tourism core of Kampong Glam.

For weekday, the area within North Bridge Road which is near the Sultan
Mosque has the highest pedestrian count of all the sections at an average
pedestrian count of 79 per 5 minutes. For weekend, one core area can be
seen is Malay Heritage Centre with 55. One of the reasons for high
pedestrian count is the presence of the Mosque whereby religion practices
are available. Another thing is that the place is rich in Malay culture so by all
means, a high influx of people come here for visiting the typical worship
heritage. The difference between weekday and weekend is that people have

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more free time to visit, hence larger number. Also, as it moves outwards to
Aliwal Street, the pedestrian count decreases.

The isolines also indicates a second core area located within Bussorah Street,
which has the average pedestrian count as 64. Nevertheless, for weekend,
Bussorah Street (which also offers the way to the Mosque) has the highest
one with 151 and the surrounding area can be considered as the core. The
high concentration of tourist facilities in this area can be taken into account as
one explanation for this because the number of people frequenting the area
will increase. This street also connects the Mosque and surrounding areas. As
the isolines circle outwards from Arab Street, Haji Lane, Bali Lane, Baghdad
Street and Kandahar Street, there is a noticeable trend of decreasing
pedestrian count.

The assumption for hypothesis 2, the density of pedestrians will increase as

you move towards the Kampong Glam core. Therefore, there are two core
areas, as shown above in figure 11.

4.3 Environmental Index

The map in figure 13 shows that the area around Baghdad Street, near the
Malay Heritage centre and the alley of Aliwal Street scored the lowest on the
environmental index, between -10 to -5 which provides a clear evidence of
high level of human activities in those areas. The area around Bussorah
Street, Bali Lane, Aliwal Street and Jalan Kubor all scored between 5 to 10 on
the scale, which indicates lower level of human activity.

From the land use tally survey, Bussorah Street was seen to have a high
concentration of tourist facilities, which then the environmental index value
was expected to be negative because of a larger number of visitors who will
be passing by the area due to concentrated tourist facilities; however, it
scored between 5 to 10. One explanation for this could be the presence of

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Sultan Mosque. It is likely because people will behave in careful manners

around the Mosque so as to show respect, which will result in a low noise
level, no litter, etc, which will hence result in a positive environmental index
value.

The hypothesis predicted that the environmental index will be positive, and it
is proven to be inaccurate from the average value of 1.03. The fieldwork
surveyed contains small roads and many alleys, which naturally would have
not so many vehicles, leading to low to no noise pollution. Another valid
reason could be that the Singapore government has been trying to conserve
Kampong Glam, a Malay cultural heritage site, as a result, the buildings within
the area will be well-maintained. Therefore, all these could result in a positive
environmental value. Hence the core tourist area is drawn in figure 14 below.

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5. Conclusion
The data all gathered were put together so as to find out the tourist core of
fieldwork area. The map of core areas determined by concentration of tourist
facilities, pedestrian count and environment quality is shown in the map below.

S E

100 m

Core area delimited by Pedestrian Count

Core Area delimited by Tourist Facilities
Core25Area delimited by Environment Quality
Final core area delimited
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Figure 15. Boundary of core area defined by all indicators.

The map indicates that the core area delimited by each indicator is different from
each other. As we can see from the map above, overlapping occurs among
location 14, 15 and 19 as Bussorah Street and Baghdad Street, which could be
delimited as the main core of Kampong Glam.

In the investigation, the research showed that there is an area around Malay
heritage Centre and Symmetry overlaps with tourist facilities and pedestrian
count. However, it doesn’t include environment quality indicators. Therefore, it
cannot be delimited as the core tourist area of Kampong Glam.

Hypothesis 1, tourist facilities will increase as you move towards the Kampong
Glam core is proven. The reason of having high concentration of tourist facilities
in two core areas because they are located near the places like Malay Heritage
Centre and the Sultan Mosque which have the rich cultural Malay atmosphere.

Hypothesis 2, the density of pedestrians will increase as you move towards the
Kampong Glam core is proven during the research. This is likely because of the
variety of goods and services available there whereby people can come
frequently.

Hypothesis 3, the environmental state will deteriorate as you move closer

towards the Kampong Glam core, is disproven. There would have more people
in the tourist core but the environment is still consider good.

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7. Evaluation
The accuracy and reliability of the research was arguable due to a number of
uncertainties during the investigation.

Firstly, land use tally relied on judgement, which could have led to inaccuracy
and human error. Students may be forced to make subjective opinions
sometimes on the basis that some shops cater to both local and tourist visitors.
For example, convenience store like “7-Eleven” or restaurants, hence the data
may contain some kind of biasness, which was also risky as a main indicator for
the research. To improve, there should have been some criteria for students to
refer to in any cases of doubt, or if there were any issues, the same judgement
should be made.

Secondly, it was difficult to standardize the pedestrian count because each

location sector may have included more than one street to choose from so
pedestrian count for each street could not have been counted. Also, not all
students have managed to record down the data in a centralized location as well
as the fact that human error could have been made seeing as it could be difficult
to count pedestrians on streets that are congested. Therefore, isolines were
chosen to maintain a focus on pedestrian count. In order to improve, the data
should have been gathered on more weekdays and weekends to be more
reliable as well as having 2 people standing on both sides of the streets.

Thirdly, for environmental index, it uses bi-polar scoring which means that it’s
subjective to personal judgement and the standard of judgement would vary from

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students to students, hence each location may be ineffectively represented. The

whole group of students should have come together to each specific area in
order to make the decision on the quality of the environment. To improve, there
could have been criteria for deciding quality of environment and the decision
should have been made by the group.

Lastly, the data gathering process had only been repeated twice, once on
weekday and once on weekend. This cannot represent the reliability and it would
have been more ethical to be able to repeat the data collection to have the
average results be more reliable.

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Bibliography
http://www.kampongglam.org.sg/aboutUs_HistoryOfKampongGlam.htm
http://www.yoursingapore.com/see-do-singapore/places-to-see/kampong-glam.html

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