Chinese Outbound Market Research Articles

The boycott of Chinese outbound tourists: the influence of the conspiracy theory on human trafficking in Thailand

ABSTRACT Thailand is one of the most popular outbound destinations for Chinese tourists. However, the conspiracy theory about trafficking Chinese in Thailand has negatively affected the resilience of the Chinese outbound market after the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue of how beliefs in the conspiracy theory affect Chinese tourists’ intention to visit Thailand is investigated in this study. An online survey with a valid sample of 452 Chinese was conducted in July and August 2023. The measurement model and structural model were tested via WarpPLS 8.0. The results of this study indicate that beliefs in the conspiracy theory arouse Chinese tourists’ distrust towards Thailand and signify that tourism boycott is a form of negative political consumption. Furthermore, the respondents react differently to the conspiracy theory based on their age and past visit experience. This study highlights conspiracy beliefs as a psychological factor affecting tourist behaviour. It also suggests that relevant conspiracy theories overshadow tourism resilience in destinations.

Features of the outbound tourist market of China in the current realities


 
 
 Over the recent decades, China has built an economic foundation enabling its citizens to travel. During this time, the numbers of tourists from the People’s Republic of China increased by several times, and therefore the Chinese tourists have a great role on the global stage. China’s progressive, superlarge outbound market is becoming appealing to other countries. The Chinese tourist is different from the standard «Western» tourist, and thus their thinking and preferences should be understood better. A literary analysis of scientific researches of the Chinese tourism demonstrated the interest to this topic growing since the 2010s. The majority of researchers, practitioners in tourism, and representatives of state administrations and specialists of professional tourism institutions agree that the Chinese tourism market has a hyper-potential and is developing hyper-dynamically. However, if the scientific reviews of the last decade focused only on the research dealing with geography where the Chinese travel and dynamics of the Chinese outbound tourism, modern works contain a deep understanding of the behavior and experience of the Chinese tourists and highlight the negative aspects of Chinese mass tourism. The objective of this study was analyzing the Chinese outbound market, its features and opportunities to increase the flow of Chinese tourists. For those purposes, it is necessary to carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Chinese outbound tourist market; to form a portrait of the average Chinese tourist; identify negative and positive features of the Chinese mass tourism. That is why the paper analyzed the position of the Chinese outbound tourism on the global market based on such indicators as the number of outbound tourists and tourists’ expenditures. The paper presents the geography of tourist visits by the Chinese and the share of Chinese tourists in the structure of tourists of the world’s most visited destination cities. The portrait of the average Chinese tourist has been specified in terms of age, gender, education, income level, average spend receipt, length of stay during the trip, motives and reasons for the visit. We analyzed the influence of the Chinese mass tourism. The results of the research can be used in practice by tourism enterprises when designing marketing projects aimed at the Chinese consumer, as well as when forming new products for tourists from the PRC.
 
 

Seasonality patterns of the Chinese outbound travelers: Evidence from eight leading tourist destinations in Asia

The Chinese outbound market has surpassed that of any country in the world in recent years. It specifically became the leading source market for many Asian countries. In this respect, this study uses a monthly dataset of tourist arrivals from 1995 to 2019 to investigate the seasonality patterns of Chinese outbound tourists in eight tourist destinations in Asia popular among Chinese tourists. The Gini coefficient and the Seasonal Index were used to examine the seasonality patterns. The results of this research reveal a generally consistent pattern across all destinations examined, confirming the occurrence of two distinct peaks (i.e., February and July to August) and off-peak (i.e., March to June and November to December) periods. The findings further show the expansion of the Chinese market has considerably softened the seasonality in the inbound tourism of the countries studied. Finally, key implications of the study findings are discussed, highlighting some practical insights that might help practitioners manage seasonality.

Promoting Chinese Cultural Heritage Tourism in Sri Lanka during Post-COVID19 Revival Phase: Viewpoint

The Chinese outbound tourists have received the spotlight of many destinations around the world. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to discuss the Chinese cultural heritage tourism potential in Sri Lanka with the purpose of attracting Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka during the post-COVID19 tourism revival phase. The study critically evaluates the previous literature on Chinese outbound tourism, heritage tourism, and Chinese cultural heritage in Sri Lanka. The study follows an interpretivism research approach. The study identified the potential of attracting Chinese outbound tourists to Sri Lanka after developing Chinese Cultural Heritage in Sri Lanka as a niche tourism product. The study further examined the resilience of the Chinese outbound market against the COVID19 pandemic and makes recommendations to attract Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka during the post-COVID19 revival phase. This viewpoint paper provides practical implications to Sri Lanka tourism policy makers and practitioners on how to attract the Chinese outbound tourists, which has not been systematically studied before.

Perceiving North Korea through Chinese tourists’ eyes

Percibir a corea del norte a través de los ojos de los turistas chinosPropósitoeste documento presenta un estudio de caso que investiga las percepciones de los turistas chinos sobre Corea del Norte, considerado uno de los destinos turísticos más singulares del mundo.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueeste estudio exploratorio informa resultados basados en entrevistas semiestructuradas con 30 turistas chinos. Este estudio utiliza el modelo cognitivo-afectivo para clasificar la imagen de destino propuesta por los encuestados. Los datos se analizaron mediante análisis de contenido.Hallazgosel estudio encontró que la imagen cognitiva se enfoca en atributos tales como la situación económica/política única del país, el entorno natural virgen y la construcción de infraestructura deficiente. Los componentes afectivos se centran en la relación amistosa entre China y Corea del Norte, y una comparación entre la situación actual de Corea del Norte y la de China durante el período de la Revolución Cultural.Limitaciones/implicacionesde la investigación: dado el enfoque cualitativo y la naturaleza exploratoria, los resultados pueden no generalizarse a la literatura más amplia del mercado emisor chino. La contribución teórica de este artículo a la imagen de destino puede estar limitada a los contextos culturales chinos.Este estudio ofrece implicaciones prácticas para promover las imágenes de Corea del Norte para atraer a más visitantes chinos.Originalidad/valorel modelo cognitivo-afectivo como uno de los modelos más utilizados se utilizó para explorar la imagen de destino de Corea del Norte a los ojos de los turistas chinos. Además, este estudio destaca la importancia de la política para influir en la imagen de destino de un país.

Integrating VSM and Network Analysis for Tourism Strategies – Case: Mexico and the Chinese Outbound Market

With China leading since 2012 global outbound travel, this paper introduces a Systemic Model for Chinese Outbound Market exemplifying with Mexico’s Case study, the seventh most visited country worldwide. Seeking to contribute increasing the applications of VSM, deepening its understanding and relevance stating proper functions integration to face Chinese Outbound Market leadership occurred in global tourism environment. First section of the manuscript introduces research objectives and gaps as well as document sources review discussion; second section details research design; third section covers proposed model and it’s functions’ operationalization, as well as network science analysis of information collected during an academical research stay on 2016 from Mexico National Polytechnic Institute to China Sun Yat Sen University Zhuhai Campus Tourism Faculty, and the Centrality measures found to confirm model pertinence.

Sustainable Tourism Planning for Taiwanese in Administrative Effects with Respect to Chinese Arrivals

It has been a crucial achievement for most of the destinations to open up and develop a new inbound market, which means a great opportunity to increase the arrivals and economic benefits. The mighty Chinese outbound market is a welcomed resource but not always the assurance of the economics growth and industries’ profits. While foreseeing the excessive arrivals and low-price groups are harmful to the tourism business and society, the criticism and negative impression shall be prevented in advance. With the considerations of sustainable tourism and a good relationship with China, Taiwan has established a comprehensive administrative tourism mechanism on receptions of travel agencies. The unique mechanism was designed to foster the healthy business models, to construct the win-win political and economic situations, and to ease the possible impacts. By applying the Importance–Performance Analysis, this study reveals the administrative direction that needs to be revised. Among these control requests, the reasonable group fee is the key to fitting the anticipation of receptions of travel agencies. This study further proposes the Importance–Support Analysis and Importance–Performance–Support Analysis frames to enhance the validity of the Importance.

The Chinese Cohort 60s and Japan: A journey of emotions

The Chinese outbound market exerts a substantial economic impact on the Japanese tourist industry. Yet history-inspired disputes between the two nations often cause fluctuations in the market. Through a qualitative inquiry with 27 interviewees, this study explores how the Chinese Cohort 60’s memories of, and emotions toward, Japan have evolved in the past 60 years and how the interplay of memories and emotions explain the cohort’s intention to visit Japan. Three subgroups emerged from the interview data, which exhibited different degrees of travel intention that were attributable to the variation of their memories of Japan. While all three subgroups held the declarative memory of the anti-Japanese war, regions of interviewees’ origin and their family histories were found to be significantly related to their distinctive emotions toward Japan. A Memory-Emotion-Time framework is developed that illustrates how memory and emotion influence one’s travel decisions in the context of history.

Motivations of experienced leisure travellers: A means-end chain study on the Chinese outbound market

This study examines Chinese outbound leisure travel motivation using a two-stage means-end chain (MEC) approach. In-depth interviews ( n = 60) using a soft-laddering method followed by a hard-laddering survey ( n = 600) with experienced Chinese outbound leisure travellers allowed culturally specific motivations for travel to be identified, based on 48 items at attribute, consequence and value levels. Six dominant MECs were identified. These findings provide a non-Western structure to the subtleties and salient dimensions of traveller motivation.

Segmentation by Experiential Familiarity and Travel Mode of the Chinese Outbound Market to Spain

ABSTRACTChinese travel markets are maturing with new travel trends arising as tourists become more experienced. This paper analyzes the possibilities of segmenting Chinese tourists’ motivations and satisfaction in Western destinations by experiential familiarity and travel mode, namely Free Independent Travel and Group-tour Travel. Based on these variables, this study builds on a survey questionnaire of Mainland Chinese travelers to Spain. A quantitative analysis of motivations and satisfaction is performed. Comparison of means, one-way MANOVA and Principal Component Analysis are the main analytical techniques used to understand the a priori selected segments of tourists. The main results show significant differences among consumers: independent travelers are less satisfied with the Chinese language services, whereas group-tour travelers are, overall, less satisfied with the trip and the destination. The results also show that repeat visitors are motivated by different aspects of the destination, such as Spanish natural resources and beaches, which are less important for first-time visitors. Among the studied segments of consumers, the differences in motivation, satisfaction and sociodemographic profiles are discussed along with the practical implications of the research.

Recognizing Changes in the Chinese Outbound Tourism Source Market

This study presents a geographic market segmentation and evolutionary approach by examining regional differences in Chinese outbound market and its distribution. To do this, two well-known empirical regularities that are used in urban geography—the primate city and rank-size rule—are employed to measure changes and trends. The research findings show that as the scale of the core region (mega in size with respect to tourist volume) increases, peripheral regions (small and medium sized), with ununiform speed, respond quickly to this change. The results also show how the market has evolved over the time period as well as the trends of development between core and peripheral regions. Understanding such implications may help Western providers better serve this unique and idiosyncratic market.

Chinese tourism: Development and prospects for Greece

China has been, and still is, by far the fastest growing tourism source market in the world. Chinese outbound travel has seen a rapid increase because Chinese authorities have not only implemented policies which facilitate the Chinese outbound tourism but also, the rising standards of living in China have expanded the demand for overseas tourism. The objective of this study is to examine the development of Chinese tourism in Greece, identify the motivation factors of Chinese tourists who visit Greece, determine the destination attributes of Greece which attract them and discover their activity preferences in Greece. A qualitative research using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 19 interviewees was conducted, 17 of them with Chinese tourists, conducted in the district of the Acropolis (Athens) and two with professionals in the field of tourism in Greece. Results show that the most significant push–pull factors for Chinese tourists visiting Greece are cultural exchange, the relaxation-escape from their routine, prestige, the history of Greece, the blue and white color of Cyclades, Greek hospitality, archeological sites, good quality of the hotel services and, finally, Greek food and good event organisation. The research findings could help to build a strategy for the Greek tourism authority to prepare itself to become a more active player in the Chinese outbound market. The recommendations include simplification of the visa issuing procedure and direct flights connecting the two countries, proper preparation of the accommodation sector (a better understanding and respect for the Chinese culture), improvement of amenities such as public safety and communications and effective contact with more tour operators in China.

Potential Chinese travellers to Western Europe: segmenting motivations and service expectations

This study examines the propensity for long-haul independent travel amongst young Chinese travellers and evaluates the corresponding management implications. The paper reports findings of a survey of 403 potential travellers to Western Europe. Three clusters of visitors were identified based on their service expectations and profiled using their motives and socio-demographics. Unlike previous studies emphasising the homogeneous behaviour of the Chinese outbound market (e.g. packaged tours and group travel), our findings suggest a nascent Chinese independent travel segment that does not conform to Western conceptualisations of the ‘typical’ attitudes and behaviours of such visitors. This may portend the end of backpackers as a discrete group as the outbound Chinese market diversifies and engages Western Europe's independent travel infrastructure in multiple ways. Recommendations are offered for managing expectations, marketing independent travel amenities and facilities and service provision to these visitors.

Travel Motivations of Mainland Chinese Travelers to the United States

The U.S.-bound Chinese market has demonstrated great potential for growth, especially after the two countries reached the approved destination status (ADS) agreement in December 2007. The objective of this study was to investigate potential Chinese travelers' motivations to visit the United States. The study identified five factors that may motivate potential Chinese travelers to visit the United States, including ego enhancement, international exposure, communication opportunities, financial incentives, and destination stimuli. This study also examined the differences in each motivation factor among potential Chinese travelers with different sociodemographic backgrounds, suggesting significant relationships between travel motivations and sociodemographic factors. The findings contribute to tourism literature on the emerging Chinese outbound market and have practical implications for targeting this promising market.

Attributes that influence the evaluation of travel dining experience: When East meets West

Many destination marketers have utilized gastronomy as a source of new products and activities to attract tourists. Despite the substantial rise in the Chinese outbound market, very little is known about how Chinese tourists evaluate their travel dining experiences. By using narrative analysis, this study examines attributes that may affect Chinese tourists' evaluation of their travel dining experiences. On-site participant observation and focus group interviews were conducted, respectively, with Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong group tourists, while they were on holiday in Australia. A total of 15 attributes were identified, which were classified under the following six categories: tourists' own food culture, the contextual factor of the dining experience, variety and diversity of food, perception of the destination, service encounter, and tour guide's performance. The respective implications of the attributes on travel dining experience are also discussed.

Towards a Conceptualization of Unethical Marketing Practices in Tourism: a Case‐Study of Australia's Inbound Chinese Travel Market

This paper has a twofold purpose: to identify the types and impacts of unethical practices in an international travel market and to offer a generic model to enhance our understanding of the causes and consequences of such practices. The Chinese outbound market is used as a case study. The choice of China is timely and appropriate, given that the country is forecast to be one of the world's major outbound markets by 2010 with over 100 million leaving mainland China (World Tourism Organization [WTO], 2006). The research setting is the Chinese inbound tourism market to Australia where the Chinese market has grown substantially since Approved Destination Status (ADS) was granted in 1999. The implications of this research for European and North American tourism operators are significant, given the 2005 agreement between the European Commission and the Chinese authorities that allows group travel from China into Europe. Using the long‐interview technique with industry participants in Australia and China a conceptual framework of the environment in which unethical practices occur is provided. A model illustrating antecedents, impacts, and outcomes of unethical practices is offered. Key managerial findings include the unhealthy consolidation of channel power in the Chinese market and the influence of ethnic networks across borders. Several key issues requiring further research are highlighted.

Understanding and Sharing Knowledge of New Tourism Markets

SUMMARY This paper examines issues involved in the definition, creation, and use of knowledge about the Chinese outbound market. It provides an initial view of the type of knowledge required by tourism managers in Australia, some suggestions about where this knowledge is available, or how it may be produced, and identifies issues in sharing that knowledge between tourism industry members and between academics and the industry.

The Chinese travelers to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand: A unique Chinese outbound market

The study was designed to examine the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and trip‐related attributes of the outbound Chinese travelers to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand (SMT market) and to compare this particular market with the two groups of Chinese visitors bound for other Asia‐Pacific and outside Asia‐Pacific destinations. The results provide a profile of the SMT Chinese market and identified a number of characteristics and attributes that significantly differentiated the SMT market from the two other markets.