Chinese Travel Market Research Articles

Investigating the Motivations and Preferences of Chinese Cruise Travelers Amid COVID-19

ABSTRACT The literature on cruise tourism is primarily Western-focused, which could differ compared to those in Asia Pacific. To address this gap, this study combines motivation and cruise preferences for a better understanding of repeated Chinese cruisers amid COVID-19 via the use of conjoint and cluster analysis. The findings revealed that shore activity is more important than cabin price and duration. Sight-seeing is the most strongly preferred shore excursion, followed by visiting natural scenery. This study contributes by providing insight into the current views of the Chinese travel market, and provides suggestions to cruise companies on target segments, product design, and marketing strategies in preparation for travel recovery.

Understanding Chinese Independent Travel Market To South Korea: a Segmentation Approach

The rapid growth of the Chinese travel market has gained attention in the tourism industry. However, very few studies have been conducted to examine travel constraints that prevent Chinese outbound travelers from going somewhere quite accessible to their major destination from a multidestination perspective. Drawing upon the leisure constraint model (LCM), this study explored Chinese independent tourists' perceived travel constraints in selecting second-tier destinations in their destination choice and analyzed the market segments. A self-administered survey was collected from 393 Chinese travelers who did not visit Gyeonggi Province close to Seoul during their travels in South Korea. Based on the findings, four distinct groups were formed. The findings provide important insights into destinations that desire to attract more Chinese independent travelers.

The Attractiveness of Australian Events to Chinese Visitors and Barriers to Attendance

This article explores the attractiveness of Australian events to Chinese visitors. The Chinese have become the most important inbound market for Australia and this trend is likely to continue in the near future. Traditionally, Chinese visitors have been interested in sightseeing, but they are becoming more sophisticated in their travel behaviors and are seeking more active experiences. This exploratory study investigated whether Chinese visitors are attracted to events, what types of events they are likely to be interested in, and what factors impede their attendance at events based on data collected from Chinese tourists by travel agents in Guandong province. It was found that some Chinese tourists are interested in events, particularly festivals and cultural events, as well as certain hallmark sporting events. It was also found that interest in events appears to increase with travel experience, which bodes well for Australian events in the future as the Chinese travel market continues to mature. The findings will contribute a further cultural dimension to the event literature and help inform marketing and operations for individual events organizers and destination marketing associations.

Understanding Mainland Chinese Tourists’ Motivation and Constraints of Visiting Taiwan

ABSTRACTChina has been by far the fastest growing source market in recent years and is now the largest tourism source market in the world. Mainland Chinese travelers were permitted to directly visit Taiwan in 2008. Within a short period of time, the Mainland Chinese travel market has become the top source market for Taiwan’s tourism industry. However, limited attention has been paid to the travel behavior of this significant market, such as why Mainland Chinese travelers visit Taiwan and why do they not. Using interviews, this study identified a list of motivation factors and travel constraint factors. Three themes, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors, influenced Mainland Chinese tourists’ intention to visit Taiwan. In particular, contextual factors, such as ‘the cross-strait relations’ between Mainland China and Taiwan, play a key role in influencing tourists’ visit intention. Like two sides of the same coin, ‘the cross-strait relations’ could be a facilitator to attract Mainland Chinese tourists or an inhibitor to stop Mainland Chinese visiting Taiwan.

Statistics, publicity and industry intervention: Changing depictions of the Chinese outbound travel market in New Zealand newspapers

Recent socio-economic gains made by China have transformed the country into an enormous outbound travel market for destinations such as New Zealand. Various official statistics that pertain to this market are produced for the purposes of evaluating its behaviour and affirming its commercial value. An analysis of articles published in New Zealand newspapers demonstrates that media-disseminated statistics are used to assess the capabilities of the Chinese outbound travel market, reflect a desire for objective measures and can be broadly associated with a series of managerial interventions. Connecting publically available statistics with certain actions taken by tourism organizations must proceed cautiously. However, the correspondence between official statistics that quantify dimensions of particular issues and certain industry actions can be mapped, to some extent, in proximate terms. Statistics help to make problems and opportunities connected with a phenomenon – in this case, the Chinese travel market – discernible and thus more compatible with management intervention. Enumeration and industry action are intertwined in a manner that merits study by tourism researchers. To chart the connections between data-based depictions of a travel market and industry responses, this paper marshals evidence from New Zealand newspapers – publications that chronicle important dimensions of the country’s tourism industry and are a significant means of public communication. A sequence of statistically based episodic portraits of the Chinese market produces a changing object of scrutiny and intervention for a variety of interested parties.

Influencing Chinese travel decisions

By 2006, Macao became the global leader in casino tourism, surpassing the Las Vegas Strip in terms of gross gaming revenue primarily driven by Macao being the only place in China where casino gambling is legal. Conspicuous within Macao’s casino marketing strategy has been the investment in celebrity endorsement to lure Chinese visitors to Macao. China has also emerged as one of the world’s largest and increasingly sought-after high-yield travel markets. As competition intensifies for the emerging Chinese travel market globally, understanding the most optimum communication strategy that can be effectively applied to and influence Chinese outbound travelers can give greater direction to destination marketing agencies and National Tourism Authorities. With a focus on the influence of the celebrity endorsement tactic on travel perceptions and decision making, a face-to-face survey was conducted on 305 Chinese visitors to Macao in 2013. The study revealed that perceptions and destination decision making differed among Chinese visitors with regard to age, gender, education, and income range, when using the celebrity endorsement tactic. The findings showed that celebrity endorsement could be used more strategically to influence and target certain Chinese traveler segments, emphasizing the need to carefully assess the usefulness of such a costly tactic within destination promotional campaigns aimed at the Chinese audience.

The Image of Taiwan as a Travel Destination: Perspectives from Mainland China

ABSTRACT This study presents the perceived and projected image of Taiwan as a travel destination from perspectives from Mainland China. The perceived image of Taiwan was examined by interviewing 28 Mainland Chinese; the projected image of Taiwan was investigated by analyzing articles in China's most popular travel magazines. The different types of images of Taiwan among visitors, nonvisitors, and travel magazines were compared. The projected image changed notably after the opening of Taiwan's tourism to travelers from Mainland China. The results of this study could help destination marketing organizations to assess their marketing strategies for the Mainland Chinese travel market.

Estimating the size of the Chinese outbound travel market: A demand-side approach

The Chinese outbound travel market has been one of the fastest-growing international markets over the past decade. However, estimating the size and identifying key tourist-generating areas for the Chinese travel market remain a significant challenge for international marketers. This empirical study employs an incidental target-market approach and presents updated research findings concerning this burgeoning market. Primary and secondary tourist-generating cities of Mainland China were identified based on population size and level of socioeconomic development, and their market potential for outbound travel was assessed through a large-scale telephone survey. This study estimated that the current Chinese outbound travel market comprises approximately 22 million city residents, among whom 11.5 million have traveled or plan to travel to destinations outside Asia. In addition to estimating market size and making recommendations on target cities, the study also introduces an effective research design for identifying target markets and customers.

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.

Entry strategies into China for foreign travel companies

The opening up of the Chinese economy has led to rapid growth in international tourism, with extensive potential growth in numbersand destinations throughout the world. The structure of the Chinese travel industry is examined here, with particular emphasis upon the future changes likely to take place in the provision of travel services. Some of these changes are evolutionary with free market growth, and some will be caused by the requirements of World Trade Organisation entry for China. This paper focuses upon the issue of whether foreign companies can become more involved in the potentially huge Chinese travel market, and if so in what way they should develop their market entry strategies. In conclusion, it is determined that companies must make a strategic choice between the advantages of early entry strategies or waiting for a clear distinction between the wholesaling and retailing functions of tourism selling to evolve and then implementing a late entry strategy.

Profiling the U.S.-Bound Chinese Travelers by Purpose of Trip

Using the analysis of the In-Flight survey data collected by U.S. Tourism Industries, this study profiled the characteristics of U.S.-bound Chinese travelers in terms of their age, gender, income, occupation, lead time of pre-trip preparation, information sources, duration of stay, expenditure patterns, package usage, and participation rates of activities. Comparisons were made among three groups: business only, business and leisure, and leisure only travelers. The three travel groups demonstrated some differences in their pre-trip preparation, trip characteristics, as well as destination activity participation patterns. The leisure travelers' leadtime for airline reservations was much longer than the other two groups. While all three groups identified travel agencies as a main information source, leisure travelers tended to use informal sources such as friends and relatives and word-of-mouth. The business and hybrid groups showed a stronger reliance on official or formal information channels such as the national government tourist office and corporate travel department. In terms of trip characteristics, leisure travelers stayed longer than the other two groups. Overall trip spending was similar among the three groups. However, for the individual expenditure categories, the leisure travelers spent the most on entertainment. Regardless of the differences in trip purposes, all three groups spent a substantial amount of money on gifts. The most popular destination activities and attractions appeared to be shopping, dining, city sightseeing, visiting historical places, amusement and theme parks, national parks, and casinos/gambling. The leisure group had consistently higher participation rates. There were substantial differences between the business and hybrid groups. The hybrid travelers tended to participate more in destination activities than the business travelers. Chinese travelers are among the fastest growing outbound markets and thus present an opportunity for tourism organizations and businesses in the United States. An increased understanding of the characteristics of the outbound Chinese travel market in general and the differences among travel groups based on trip purposes should help destinations and other tourism organizations in marketing and product development.