Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Articles

Modeling precursors of impulsive tourist shopping behavior: Evidence from long‐haul Chinese outbound tourists

AbstractStudies have examined tourism shopping in various aspects, but scarce research has specifically focused on impulsive shopping behavior of tourists, which is of particular relevance in the tourism settings. This study addresses this paucity by examining factors influencing impulsive tourist shopping urge and purchase from the aspects of tourist internal attribute, social influence, and product attribute. By examining Chinese long‐haul tourists traveled outside Asia, the empirical results suggest that (a) impulsive trait and hedonic and materialistic tendency of tourists lead to impulsive urge and engagement in actual impulsive buying; (b) shopping companion/social influences from family and relatives, peers (friends/colleagues), and shop assistants also affect the impulsive shopping urge; (c) product brand variety shows significant effect on impulsive urge, whereas the influence of product price is insignificant; and (d) traveling with a shopping list or not moderates the relationship between impulsive urge and actual impulsive purchase. The study advances the theoretical understanding of tourist impulsive shopping behavior and provides marketing/managerial insights into Chinese overseas tourism market.

Not losing our collective face: Social identity and Chinese tourists' reflections on uncivilised behaviour

The dramatic increase in the number of Chinese outbound tourists has sometimes generated negative media reports about their ‘uncivilised’ behaviour. The academic literature has only partially analysed such behaviour and its impacts on Chinese tourists in terms of their group identity. Building on the recognition of the interactive and interdependent nature of social identification, the study examines Chinese tourists' reflections on and responses to the negative image projected on them by others. Using historical resources, a conceptual appraisal of the concept of face informs the empirical work. The researchers conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore ways in which educated Chinese tourists acknowledged and rationalised the prevalent ascribed negative images. The study found that the fear of ‘losing collective face’ prompts Chinese tourists to adopt and promote civilised behaviour. Practical implications derived from the findings include specifying promotional themes about face and advice for individuals and groups to monitor each other. Limitations and future research directions were also discussed.

The Tourist Stereotype Model: Positive and Negative Dimensions

This research proposes a measurement model to evaluate tourist stereotypes. Study 1 assesses the positive and negative tourist stereotypes that Hong Kong residents hold toward Chinese outbound tourists by connecting previous research on stereotypes from the Princeton Trilogy and from the stereotype content model. Six positive stereotypes were identified across two dimensions (i.e., Approachable: friendly, sincere, and good; and Competent: intelligent, industrious, and competent) as well as six inappropriate biases across two factors (i.e., Boastful: materialistic and loud; Rude: unreasonable, immoral, rude, and uncivilized). Study 2 provides further support for the measurement model by using an additional sample to investigate tourist self-stereotypes. Collectively, studies 1 and 2 contribute to the tourism literature by highlighting the dynamics involved in (self)-stereotyping that are relevant for destination management organizations (DMOs) and public policymakers involved in managing public perceptions of tourist stereotypes.

Reframing and Reconceptualising Gambling tourism in Macau as a Chinese Pilgrimage

While dominant discourses, media representations and corporate entities in China downplay the presence of Chinese mainland gambling in Macau, Beijing sanctions millions of its citizens to make the journey to Macau to gamble each year. While Macau’s success is often put down to the extent to which visitors are drawn to a secular destination with integrated resorts to engage in individualistic activities, our approach explores Chinese gambling tourists’ movements, rituals and behaviours along post-structuralist lines, so as to generate new insights. The analysis shows how the metaphor of pilgrimage is an important lens to address individual and communal practices amongst outbound Chinese gambling tourists and brings to light the hyper-meaningfulness, shared values, ritualization, play, risk, and liminal conditions that characterise the processes of their entanglements and the centrality of commercial and political interests. In particular, the analysis indicates the need to explore the significance of cultural, spiritual, economic and social dimensions of Chinese outbound tourism, as well as the unique discourses of power and control affecting their movement and practices. By reframing and reconceptualising gambling tourists as a Chinese pilgrimage, we account for manifestations of culture, governmentality and intentional ritualization as well as contribute an alternative construction of pilgrimage beyond euro-centric accounts, which in turn, will stimulate discussion on geographies of pilgrimage.

Chinese Tourism Growth to U.S. National Parks and Gateway Communities: A Case Study in West Yellowstone, Montana

Chinese outbound tourism is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide, and with this growth, there has been a surge in international tourism to national parks. For example, 40% of Chinese travelers visited a national park during their U.S. travels (Office of Travel and Tourism Industries [OTTI], 2016). As one of the most popular national parks in the world, Yellowstone National Park (YELL) has swelled in Chinese visitation (Resource Systems Group [RSG], 2017). Despite positive economic aspects of increased tourism, parks and communities are faced with challenges that can impact management and the tourists’ experience. There is extremely limited research on Chinese tourism to U.S. national parks, and this study addresses these gaps through a case study in West Yellowstone, the most popular gateway community of YELL. Through over 50 interviews with Chinese tourists, tour operators, and local business owners, specifically, we aim to gain a greater understanding of: 1) Chinese travel trends and motivations for visiting national parks, 2) Chinese tourists’ perceptions of park resources, 3) Chinese tourists’ modes for communication and information exchange, and 4) perceptions and strategies implemented by businesses in gateway communities to adapt to Chinese tourism.Major findings of the study include that Chinese tourists at YELL primarily obtain their information from friends, family, and Chinese websites with limited tourists visiting or using the National Park Service (NPS) YELL website. Our findings suggest that national park and gateway community communications on social media apps such as WeChat are a major area for growth and opportunity. Finally, the gateway community of West Yellowstone is experiencing changes due to an influx of Chinese-owned businesses and tourists, and offer insight for how to adapt to change. This study addresses a largely understudied topic despite the growing trends of Chinese tourists to national parks and protected areas globally. The study’s findings will be of interest to other parks and protected areas around the world that are experiencing or are anticipating Chinese tourism growth, and offers implications for Chinese tourism communication and marketing outside the national park setting. Finally, our exploratory study presents an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to further study Chinese tourism to national parks and gateway communities in diverse settings, which can lead to comparability of findings and also support dialogue around tourism planning, marketing, communication for protected areas and their gateway communities. Subscribe to JPRA

Risk dimensions of a vertical Chinese expansion in the Greek tourism sector: the Chinese side

The soaring Chinese outbound tourism, the agglomeration of Chinese investment in Greece and the attractiveness of Greece as a Mediterranean tourist destination jointly generate motives for Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in the Greek tourism sector. However, to the best of our knowledge, a risk analysis of Chinese vertical integration in tourist businesses has received a rather limited research attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese investment in the Greek tourism sector via a multiple dimensional risk analysis involving economic, environmental, social and cultural risks that could be possibly faced by prospective Chinese tourism investors in Greece. This paper will help Chinese public agents in reducing asymmetric information associated with an expansion in Greek tourism market.

CHARACTERISTICS AND STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE CHINESE OUTBOUND TOURIST TRAVEL TO INDONESIA

The tourism sector in Indonesia has been established as the main sector in the future. Visits of Chinese tourists ranked highest in 2017 than any other country. The huge potential of China's market in the world demands that the government together with tourism stakeholders jointly increase the number of Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia. This research is a literature study on the characteristics of Chinese outbound tourists from various sources, as well as strategies to increase the visit of Chinese tourists to Indonesia. The results of this literature review are expected to be an input for the development of tourism sector in Indonesia in reaching outbound tourists from China, and can be an inspiration for a suitable research theme in the future.

Opportunities and challenges brought by the China outbound travel market

Purpose As the Chinese outbound travel market has become a paramount target for world tourism with significant growth potential, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact that the Chinese outbound travel market has on the European tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews both academic and trade literature to provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges that the China outbound travel market might bring to the European tourism industry. Findings The paper presents the major topics relating to China outbound tourism research and the current research gaps. Chinese outbound tourists are not a homogenous group of tourists. The paper addresses opportunities and challenges from two key segments of China outbound travel (Chinese international students and Chinese senior tourists). Practical implications The paper calls for alternative and innovative research methods and research behaviour in tracking the impact of Chinese outbound tourists. Closer collaboration between academics and industry practitioners might provide a better understanding of this market. Originality/value The paper offers recent insights on the Chinese outbound tourism market based on an analysis of relevant literature by both academics and industry practitioners. This allows the relevant stakeholders to adopt proactive strategies to minimise potential negative impacts and maximise opportunities.

Modelling China’s outbound tourist flow to the ‘Silk Road’: A spatial econometric approach

With the ancient Silk Road as the historical background, the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative aims to foster common development of regional economies. Regional tourism development is an essential part of the initiative. Taking 55 countries participating in the initiative as a research sample, the article investigates the determinants and spillover effect of Chinese outbound tourist flows by spatial panel models. Furthermore, we identify different spillover paths from the perspectives of geographic and cultural proximities. The results confirm that there exist significant positive spillover effects in tourist flows among countries with geographic proximity. Meanwhile, there exist significant positive spillover effects in tourist flows among countries with cultural proximity. In addition, geographic and cultural distances between China and tourist destinations have negative impacts on Chinese outbound tourist flow.

Characteristics and Strategies to Improve Chinese Outbound Tourist Travel to Indonesia

The tourism sector in Indonesia has been established as the main sector in the future. Visits of Chinese tourists ranked highest in 2017 than any other country. The huge potential of China's market in the world demands that the government together with tourism stakeholders jointly increase the number of Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia. This reserach is a literature study on the characteristics of Chinese outbound tourists from various sources, as well as strategies to increase the visit of Chinese tourists to Indonesia. The results of this literature review is expected to be an input for the development of tourism sector in Indonesia in reaching outbound tourists from China, and can be an inspiration for a suitable research theme in the future.

Exploring the male Chinese tourists’ motivation for commercial sex when travelling overseas: Scale construction and validation

Sex and tourism has long been understudied. Little is known about tourists' motivations for consuming commercial sex while travelling, and even less, if indeed anything, is known about that of Chinese outbound tourists in particular. Based on twenty interviews and two surveys with a sample of 534 male Chinese tourists who had engaged in commercial sex when travelling overseas in the previous 12 months, this study aimed first to explore why male Chinese tourists travelled overseas and purchased commercial sex, and second to construct a comprehensive scale for measuring male tourists’ motivations for overseas commercial sex. With acceptable reliability and validity, the measurement scale yielded in this study consisted of eight motivation dimensions labelled as socialisation, relaxation and escape, travel-related novelty, sexual desire fulfillment/excitement seeking, sex-related learning, sexual mastery, social prestige, and business/pragmatic purpose. Both the theoretical and methodological implications related to the developed scale are also discussed.

Market Segmentation by Travel Motivations under a Transforming Economy: Evidence from the Monte Carlo of the Orient

Macau, the world’s largest casino hub with the largest gambling revenues, has received increasing attention as a research focus. Macau attracts more and more Chinese outbound tourists each year due to its gambling industry monopoly in Greater China. Macau is positioning itself as a ‘world center of tourism and leisure’ and has set out plans to become a broader-based tourist destination with economic diversification. Thus, an understanding of people’s varied motivations plays an important role in the current status of an environment with a moderate diversification of economic development. The objective of this study is to classify the outbound mainland Chinese tourists in Macau into more homogeneous subgroups on the basis of their travel motivations. Thirteen motivation items are extracted into four factors (namely knowledge and culture, relaxation, entertainment and gambling, and prestige) through exploratory factor analysis. Three distinct market segments are identified—freedom seekers, multi-purpose seekers, and fun and special interest in gambling seekers—based on a cluster analysis using k-means methodology. This study also presents the socio-demographic and trip characteristic differences among these three segments.

Co-authorship Networks and Thematic Development in Chinese Outbound Tourism Research

ABSTRACTOwing to the increasing number of contributions, related topics that were addressed, and contributing authors, Chinese outbound tourism was established as a research field in the mid-2000s. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature in the field via analysis of collaboration patterns and thematic development using a bibliometric approach. One-hundred and twenty-one academic articles published between 2006 and 2016 are retrieved from 16 tourism journals, and a relational analysis is performed by creating co-authorship and co-keyword networks. The results offer networks of collaborations between authors, institutions and the geographical origins of the research. This network analysis permits exploration of linkages among central authors and institutions. In addition, the results identify and discuss six main thematic areas of research. Significant structural characteristics of the research field, implications and unexplored research themes are presented and discussed.

Perils of speed dating: an Australian success story in Chinese outbound tourism

ABSTRACTThis paper provides insights and lessons about how Western tourism operators can build and maintain business-to-business relationships with Chinese tourism providers. The case analyses how Tangalooma Island Resort Pty Ltd approached the challenge of developing business networks and how they have sustained this activity for over a decade to become a major destination for Chinese visitors to Australia. While there is no shortage of research on the Chinese notion of guanxi, this study uses a novel multi-dimensional cultural intelligence perspective to synthesise Chinese and Australian views on the drivers of long-term commercial success. The frameworks and insights provided make a valuable and timely contribution to our understanding of how Western firms can approach China tourism opportunities, and importantly, provide lessons on the nuances of effective relationship development between Western and Chinese individuals and firms. This critical single case study highlights the importance of business negotiation and need for deepening cultural logic with appropriate pacing by key protagonists in the Western firm. Nurturing and growing interpersonal cultural skills is fundamental and helps build inter-firm bonds, resource ties and activity links. This is discussed using the actors–activities–resources model promoted within the context of industrial marketing and purchasing. Future research could extend the findings through additional case studies, or further empirical validation.

Food habits and tourist food consumption: an exploratory study on dining behaviours of Chinese outbound tourists in Spain

ABSTRACTLocal food as a tourism attraction has been well recognized and studied by many tourism scholars. However, the phenomenon that tourists prefer food other than local food has not gotten much attention. This article attempts to explore how the eating habits of tourists can hinder their consumption of local food by studying the food consumption behaviours of Chinese tourists in Spain. Qualitative methods were employed to interview fifty-two Chinese tourists in Barcelona, and field notes of participant observations taken during thirteen familiarization trips for Chinese market were also used to help understand the dining behaviours of Chinese tourists. The results show that due to different food habits, Chinese tourists only sampled local Spanish food during their travels in Spain. The challenges to Chinese food habits included unfamiliar ingredients, strange tastes, different quantities of food, different dining times and duration, and different cultural concepts of healthy food. The research also reveals that Chinese tourists chose many strategies to deal with the unaccustomed eating situations, such as enduring the cultural differences, eating familiar fast food, eating just Chinese food, or bringing food from home. In long-haul Europe travels, Chinese tourists often switch among these strategies in order to eat healthily and comfortably.

Chinese Outbound Tourist Preferences for All-Inclusive Group Package Tours: A Latent Class Choice Model

Extensive studies were conducted to understand package tour participants, but little is known about the selection and trade-off for a specific tour versus another. A stated choice experiment was conducted in this study with 270 prospective mainland Chinese outbound tourists, aiming to identify their heterogeneous preferences for package tours that involved eight attributes, each with varying levels. To identify the sources of preference heterogeneity, a latent class choice model was estimated to segment each of the three predetermined budget groups into two subgroups, and profile these subgroups by sociodemographic characteristics and consumption values. Different preference patterns for tour attributes were revealed among the subgroups, whereas majority of the respondents reported common preferences for fewer designated shops and direct flights. The results provide researchers and practitioners with innovative insights into the preferences and trade-offs of mainland Chinese package tour participants, as well as practical guidance for package tour design and pricing.

Reawakening Macanese identity: the impact of Chinese outbound tourism

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper examines the potential role of Chinese outbound tourism as a catalyst of change for the Macanese identity. There is an emerging trend to have a new identity amongst Macanese residents to valorize cultural and heritage assets. By using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, it proposes that the social media space is built to voice concerns of language, place attachment and induced public participation. The study utilizes a mixed method approach comprising a survey for netizens and content analysis of online discussions, in order to fully understand changes due to Chinese outbound tourism.

Chinese outbound tourism and soft power

ABSTRACTA boom in Chinese outbound tourism representing a much welcome boost to the economy of other countries has drawn global attention. Drawing upon the concept of soft power, this study explores how China use outbound tourism as an exercise of soft power, what achievements are related to this, and looks at the challenge and dilemmas that are related to this issue. It is found that tourism based soft power is being built both through government policies, which include approved destination status, tourism culture activities, tourism foreign aid and tourism cooperation as well as interactions amongst the tourists and hosts in addition to businesses. This study argues that the outcomes depend mainly on its economic power, agenda-setting, and somewhere between hard and soft power, rather than upon the country's attraction. It also establishes that soft power building through Chinese outbound tourism may be more effective in the Southeast Asian, Asia-Pacific, African and South American countries than in Western countries due to closer economic relationships, cultural similarities and shared beliefs.

Foreign direct investment in the Chinese outbound tourism industry: the policies, participants and possibilities

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the regulatory policies surrounding foreign investments in the Chinese tourism industry. It describes the key regulatory agencies involved in the policy-making and looks at how foreign investors have adapted to these policies since the late 1990s. The paper describes how the VIE structure and the free trade zones were used to attract foreign investments into the Chinese travel industry. Moreover, the paper argues that the current joint venture structure available to foreign investors is problematic seen from a foreign travel investors perspective. The author uses a hermeneutical interpretation of the topic. In addition, the social science model of fragmented authoritarianism is used to describe how the mentioned regulatory agencies interact.

Chinese cigar tourists to Cuba: A motivation-based segmentation

Abstract Despite Chinese visitors’ mounting interest in Cuba and especially its cigars, there has been scarce attention paid to the cigar tourism-related motivations of Chinese outbound tourists to Cuba. Based on 15 interviews and a survey with 459 Chinese tourists who had visited Cuba in the previous 12 months, this study developed a measurement scale for the motivations of Chinese tourists visiting Cuba as a tourism destination. This scale consists of seven motivation dimensions labelled as Relaxation & escape, Cigar authenticity seeking, Socialistic nostalgia, Social prestige, Destination-specific attraction, Cigar-related learning, and Social bonding. Further cluster analysis was performed, as a result of which Chinese tourists were segmented into three clusters based on the variation in the identified motivations: authenticity-oriented, culture-oriented, and bonding-oriented tourists. Significant differences in socio-demographic characteristics were detected among these clusters. Both the theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.