Abstract
Compared with China’s domestic and outbound tourism, China’s inbound tourism has developed relatively slowly. An understanding of cultural similarities and differences can support destination managers in formulating strategies and increase the satisfaction of inbound tourists. As one of the best tourist cities in China, Chengdu is an important destination for inbound tourists. Meanwhile, American tourists are the major source of tourists for Chengdu’s inbound tourism. Based on the Cultural Dimensions Theory proposed by Hofstede, this research focuses on a cross-cultural comparison of two important markets for Chengdu tourism: Chinese and American tourists. In addition, electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM) has become an important source of tourist information, the analysis of E-WOM may provide more insights into users’ feelings than questionnaires. This study uses content analysis to quantify online reviews and importance performance analysis to compare the importance and satisfaction of Chinese and American tourists with destination attributes. The results clearly show the comparison between the two groups in destination assessment.
Highlights
Social media is considered an essential source of travel information in the era of web 2.0, because it affects how people search and share information [1]
Since the overall evaluation of the category could not locate specific indicators, it would not be displayed in the quadrant. These two grids show some differences between Chinese tourists and American tourists
The empirical study of this study indicates that the differences between Chinese and American tourists to Chengdu are greater than their similarities, and Chengdu is one of the most popular destinations in China for tourists of both ethnic groups
Summary
Social media is considered an essential source of travel information in the era of web 2.0, because it affects how people search and share information [1]. It is changing the way tourists search, share and process related travel information, enabling travelers to share their travel experiences through social media at different time [2]. Contents and comments posted by users on social media can be viewed as electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) [3]. As one of the best tourist cities in China, Chengdu has abundant tourism resources. The United States is the main source of inbound tourists to Chengdu, and the number of American tourists is increasing year by year. There is little research on American tourists in Chengdu, on satisfaction comparison
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call