GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS
OF TOKYO METROPOLITAN UNVERSITY 46 (2011) 73-87
- 73 -
DISTRIBUTION OF BUSINESS CATEGORIES AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWO MAIN STREETS IN
GEORGETOWN, WASHINGON D.C.
Eiko WADA and Eranga RANAWEERAGE
Abstract In recent years, tourism spaces are changing along with the diversification of the concept of “Tourism”. Subsequently, there is a considerable attention on research focused on capital city tourism. This paper reveals the city of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. as the research target area. Georgetown is a prestigious residential area and a Business Improvement District (BID). There are two commercial corridors, M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, which contain high-end fashion stores, restaurants and bars. The research identifies the difference in commercial concepts of the two streets by analyzing the geographical features and transportation facilities of the two streets. M Street consists of a high variety of business categories targeting different types of people such as tourists, while Wisconsin Avenue has limited business categories with a specific target market such as local residents.
Key words: Georgetown, Washington D.C., capital city tourism, M street, Wisconsin Avenue
1. Introduction
Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States is the world’s economic and political center, as well as a world famous tourism destination with famous tourist attractions such as White House, US Capitol, and Smithsonian Museum Complex. Washington, D.C. is divided into four geographical quadrants; Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest centering the Capitol. Streets radiate into these quadrants creating several intersections. The cross-streets are named based on the direction of each quadrant. The other streets are like a grid on the map and a well-planned system.
This research focuses on the area called Georgetown in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C (see Fig. 1). Georgetown is a well known, prestigious residential area in Washington, D.C.
and bounded by Georgetown University on the west, Rock Creek, a branch of Potomac River on the east and Potomac River on the south which separates the state of Virginia. The area is about 1.5
Department of Tourism, Tokyo Metropolitan University.
- 74 - kilometers northwards from Potomac River.
Despite the features of “Urban” have attracted a lot of visitors, urban tourism study has not been gotten an attention. Though urban tourism studies have started since the 1970s, it lacks the construction of the theory and the concept (Page 1995). Capital have tendency to have good accessibility and a lot of famous and historical facilities and commercial facilities so that it attract many visitors. Law (1996) describes that “capital city” can fulfill both requirements for leisure and business, so attracts many visitors. At the same time, “capital city” is not only just famous and big city but also plays a role represent national identity. Hall (2002) focuses on capital city as a tourism destination and suggests the viewpoint of capital city tourism. In response to this, capital city tourism study is getting to become conspicuous (ex. Maitland and Ritchie 2010). Tourism studies recently targets wide range of objects and the viewpoint of capital city tourism should be attracted more attention. Based on an online survey about the image of Washington, D.C., Huang and Lee (2009) explain that Washington, D.C. has received a considerable attraction as a tourism space as well as a prestigious capital city. In case of a capital city, creating an impact on tourists to feel the spirit of a capital city is most important, and offering numerous attractions alone is not enough.
Tourism studies, target capital city, will be more focused and increase in the future. While Huan and Lee describe the image of Washington D.C. as a tourism spot and a capital city, the actual condition of the tourism resource in Washington D.C. should be surveyed. Though there are a lot
Fig. 1 Location of Georgetown.
- 75 -
of tourism resources in Washington D.C., the commercial area of Georgetown where many travelers to the city visit because of its good accessibility also should be researched.
Georgetown does not have famous political monuments such as US Capitol, however, a prestigious residential area and European style buildings for fashion stores such as COACH, H&M, TOMMY HILFIGER, J. Crew, Ralph Lauren, GAP and ZARA are created in order to generate an impact as a central city in the capital of United States. In addition, the old stone house, the oldest building in Washington, D.C. is also located in Georgetown. Straight-line distance from White House to Georgetown is only two kilometers. This close proximity is also a reason for receiving a high number of tourists. Further, Georgetown is one of the Business Improvement Districts (BID) recognized by the US policy of central city invigoration. According to the policy, a contribution is collected from employers of the city and managed by a NPO to invigorate decaying central cities (Tozaki and Otani 2003). Georgetown became a BID in 1999. According to Georgetown BID’s annual report 2009
1), there have been various actions such as activities to improve the appearance of the city (flower baskets on streetlights, more bike racks and sidewalks,
cleaning activities), festivals for rejuvenation of the city, and welfare activities to support homeless people
2). Georgetown BID focuses on three streets; M street, Wisconsin Avenue and K Street.
These three areas are considered as the main commercial areas of Georgetown as well as Washington, D.C.
This research describes Georgetown as a tourism space in Washington, D.C., focusing on two main shopping areas, M Street and Wisconsin Avenue which are also included in BID as the main
Fig.2 Study area.
- 76 -
commercial areas in Georgetown. M Street NW (abbreviated as M Street throughout this paper) lies from east to west in Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin Avenue NW (abbreviated as Wisconsin throughout this paper) lies from north to south until Bethesda, the State of Maryland in northwest of Washington, D.C. The main commercial facilities of Georgetown are concentrated in these two streets consisting various fashion shops, restaurants and bars standing side-by-side which are always crowded at anytime of the day. As shown in Fig. 2, Wisconsin intersects with M Street within Georgetown. Chapter 2 examines the distribution of business categories in these two streets, M Street and Wisconsin Ave., by field survey. The analysis shows that the distribution of the business categories in M Street and Wisconsin Ave. are influenced by the transport facilities in Georgetown. After analyzing the distribution of business categories in two main streets of Georgetown, we estimated how the transportation facilities have an effect on the distribution. The linkage between the feature of the business distribution and accessibility to Georgetown is discussed in terms of availability public transportation in Georgetown. Therefore chapter 3 describes the availability of Georgetown’s public transportation facilities and their access points.
2. Business Category Survey
A field survey was conducted on two days, 26
thand 27
thof July 2010 to identify different types of business, their share, and their distribution in M Street and Wisconsin. Six types of business are identified; 1.Garment, 2. Food & Beverage, 3. Interior Design, 4. Sundry, 5.Beauty Culture, and 6.
Other. The first category “Garment” could be further divided into four subcategories; “Men’s Clothing”, “Women’s Clothing”, “Kids Clothing”, and “General-including accessory, footwear, watches and bags”. The second category “Food & Beverage” could also be divided into three subcategories; “Café” including fast food shops, “Pub”, and “Restaurant”.
The number of business categories at each street
The results of the survey show an obvious difference in the structure of business categories in M Street and Wisconsin. Tables 1 and 2 show the number of business categories in M Street and Wisconsin Ave., and Fig. 3 shows the distribution of these shops. Further, Figs. 4 and 5 show the number of major business categories in M Street and Wisconsin Ave.
In M street, there is a wide variety of business categories, and especially the sixth category
“Other” has the highest number of shops which again shows the wide variation of business types.
In the first category “Garment”, the highest number of shops falls into the subcategory “General”
and the second highest in this category is “Women’s Clothing”. The main noticeable factor of high number of “Women’s Clothing” is the location of shops. These shops are mainly located in the first floor of buildings providing easy access to attract more visitors. Regarding the category “Food
& Beverage”, there are more “Restaurant” than “Café” in spite of the fact that high average
customer spend at “Restaurant”. On the other hand, in Wisconsin, there is a limited type of
- 77 -
business compared to M Street and the number is only a half of M Street. Main business categories are “Garment”, “Food & Beverage”, “Beauty Culture”, and “Interior Design”. The main characteristic in Wisconsin is that the shops under each category have a specific target market. For example, under “Garment”, there are mainly “Men’s Clothing” stores.
There are various kinds of business categories in M street. Especially “Garment”, mainly targets female customers, is high number.
North South North South North South North South North South North South North South Total
General 1 - 1 0 0 1 8 0 1 2 0 0 11 3 14
Women's 0 - 0 0 1 1 0 5 1 0 0 3 2 9 11
Men's 0 - 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 2 3 5
Kids 0 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Accessories 0 - 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 2
Shoes 0 - 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 4 0 4
Café 0 - 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 2 0 1 4 5 9
Pub 0 - 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 4 1 5
Restaurant 0 - 0 0 0 1 4 2 2 4 1 0 7 7 14
1 - 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 8
0 - 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 3 4 6 10
Sundries 0 - 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
Other 5 - 4 6 1 2 2 3 1 4 4 2 17 17 34
1 - 1 3 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 6 6 12
8 - 11 16 5 5 24 15 9 16 8 12 65 64 129
Garment
Food &
Bevarage Interior design
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Beauty culture
Total
Other categorie No tenant Block total
Total 8 27 10 39 25 20 129
West East West East West East West East West East Total
General 4 3 1 0 2 1 0 0 7 4 11
Women's 2 2 1 0 1 3 1 1 5 6 11
Men's 1 0 3 0 5 2 3 2 12 4 16
Kids 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 3
Accessories 0 3 1 1 1 1 1 0 3 5 8
Shoes 1 2 0 1 3 0 0 0 4 3 7
Café 0 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 6 9
Pub 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
Restaurant 1 0 2 2 0 0 2 0 5 2 7
1 0 0 1 1 2 2 1 4 4 8
2 0 1 1 0 2 1 2 4 5 9
Sundries 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Other 0 2 0 1 0 4 6 1 6 8 14
1 2 3 0 0 0 0 1 4 3 7
14 15 12 8 14 18 18 12 58 53 111
Garment
Food &
Beverage
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
Interior design Beauty culture Other
categories No tenant Block total
Total 29 20 32 30 111
Table 1 Number of business categories of M street
Table 2 Number of business categories of Wisconsin Avenue
- 78 - Differences depending on the side of the street M Street
M Street lies from east to west of Georgetown and its southern side is close to Potomac River, and also connected with Wisconsin. There is a difference in the distribution of business categories compared to the northern side. Both sides contain a high number of shops which belong to the sixth category “Other.”, However, some categories are not distributed in southern side. For example, regarding the first category “Garment”, shops of “Women’s clothing” are mainly distributed in the southern side while shops of “General” are mainly concentrated in the northern side. Another noticeable difference is the number of shops which belong to the category “Interior Design”. There is only one shop in the northern side while there are seven shops in the southern side.
Wisconsin Avenue
Wisconsin lies from south to north of Georgetown, and joins with M street in the southern part.
The two sides of Wisconsin consist of residencies. As shown in Table 2, the business categories in the west side and the east side are similar. The only difference is the number of “Men’s’ Clothing”
shops. There are twelve “Men’s Clothing” shops in the west side which is three times higher than the east side.
Fig. 3 Distribution of business categories. Source: the authors’ field survey.
- 79 - Characteristics of each block at the streets M Street
M Street is divided into six blocks (see Fig. 2). The first block begins from the western edge.
There are no buildings in the south side of the street. The shops are concentrated on the north side.
In the neighborhood of these shops, there are buildings which belong to Georgetown University.
The main characteristic of this block is that it has many shops falling into the category “Other”
(see Table 1). The shops in the first block are only concentrated in the North side.
The second block has shops both in north and south sides. There is noticeably a high number of “Interior design” shops, about seven shops concentrated in the south side.
The third block does not have a specific feature due to the short distance of area. This block contains only two types of business categories; “Garment” and “Food & Beverage”.
The fourth block is the widest area in M Street, and at the same time, it has the highest number of shops. This area receives a big number of visitors as it joins with Wisconsin in the east side.
Both north and south sides contain many shops of “Garment” which attract a large number of visitors.
The south side of the fifth block has the highest number of shops, and most of the shops belong to the category “Other”. There is less shops of “Garment.” Regarding the category “Food
& Beverage”, in the fourth block, there are four shops in the north side which locate right in front of two shops in the south side; two shops in the north side and four shops in the south side. In the fifth block, however, there are many restaurants and other types of “Food & Beverage” shops.
Finally, the sixth block has most number of shops in its south side, because the Old Stone House, a famous tourist spot is located in the north side. In this block, there are five shops related to “Beauty Culture”. Among which two shops are located in the north side and three shops in the
Fig. 4 Number of shops at each block in M Street.
1 4 2 2 1 2
5
10
3 6
5 6
2
3
5 1
7 3
2
10 10 3
1
1
3
21
6
4
0 20 40
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Garment Food&Beverage Interior Design Beauty Culture Other categories No tenant
- 80 -
south side representing the highest number compared to other blocks. Further, regarding the
“Garment” shops, there is one “General” shop in the north side and three “Women’s Clothing”
shops in the south side. Therefore, shops in the south side mainly target female customers.
Wisconsin Avenue
Wisconsin has impact from other streets differently compared to M Street. Wisconsin lies from south to north in Georgetown. The streets in the west and east in Georgetown go through Wisconsin. The connecting streets from the west and the east take a T-shaped intersection. In Wisconsin, the streets in both sides connect differently. Therefore, the blocks in the west and the east sides are divided arbitrarily (see Fig. 2).
The first block is the area up to the intersection with N Street in both west and east sides. The central business category in this block is “Garment”. The west side has some shops related to
“Food & Beverage”, “Interior Design” and “Beauty Culture” apart from the category “Garment”.
The east side is exclusively “Garments” and “Other”. This locational pattern has a relationship with well-known brand stores. For example, shops like ‘UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON’,
‘Abercrombie & Fitch’, ‘GAP’ are located in the west and ‘GAP Kids’, ‘DIESEL’, ‘RALPH LAUREN’, ‘Adidas’, ‘NINE WEST’, ‘bebe’ are located in the east. Further, ‘UGG’ will open a shop in the east side soon. This distribution of branded shops has influence from M Street which targets a wide range of visitors in the same manner.
The second block covers the area from N Street to O Street in the west and from N Street to Dumbarton Street in the east. This block is narrow in size and half of the west area is a hotel called
“The Georgetown Inn”. However, there are some shops in the first floor of the hotel. Apart from shops which belong to “Other” category, there are restaurants and “Men’s clothing” shops on this
3 3 1
2 1
4
2 2 2 7
1 1 3 3
3
2 5 3
7 19
8
20
9
0 20 40
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Garment Food&Beverage Interior Design Beauty Culture Other categories No tenant
