Tourist Shoppers’ Evaluation of Retail Service: A Study of Cross-Border versus International Outshoppers

This article extends the concept of customer perceived value (CPV) to the tourist outshopping context and explores the differences in antecedents and outcomes of CPV between cross-border and international outshoppers. A large-scale field survey in Hong Kong with cross-border outshoppers from mainland China and international shoppers from four Western countries (Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) shows that perceived product quality, risk, and value for money have a stronger effect on CPV for cross-border outshoppers, and employee service quality and lifestyle congruence for international outshoppers. CPV also has a stronger positive effect on satisfaction, word of mouth, and repeat purchase intentions for cross-border outshoppers, whereas satisfaction has a stronger positive impact on word of mouth and repeat purchase intentions for international outshoppers. We discuss the conceptual contribution and managerial implications of our findings for international retailers, researchers, and tourism organizations

Toward an understanding of tourists’ authentic heritage experiences: Evidence from Hong Kong

Authenticity in tourism has been a topic of discussion since the 1960s, but the concept is still to be fully developed. This study focuses on tourists’ perceptions of authenticity, and in particular how they evaluate authentic heritage experiences. The appearance and physical settings of attractions were found to be the initial and most important indicators of authentic or inauthentic experiences. Other criteria for assessing the authenticity of heritage experiences include the presence of local culture and customs, constructed elements, commodification, and atmosphere

Chinese heritage tourists to heritage sites: what are the effects of heritage motivation and perceived authenticity on satisfaction?

Much of the literature on authenticity is Western-centric, while little work addresses the concept in the Asian environment. The literature relating to authenticity from Asian tourists’ point of view is even underdeveloped. This study therefore aims to fill the knowledge gap by investigating Chinese tourists’ perspective of authenticity. It also examines tourists’ perceived authenticity as a multi-dimensional construct in a consumer-based model, the relationship with heritage motivation and tourist satisfaction. Findings indicate that Chinese tourists’ perceptions of authenticity are closely related to objective and constructive authenticity. The study demonstrates that heritage motivation has a significant positive influence on perceived authenticity and that perceived authenticity has a strong ability to predict tourist satisfaction

How competitive is Hong Kong against its competitors? An econometric study

This study utilizes almost ideal demand system (AIDS) models to examine Hong Kong's competitiveness as an international tourist destination in comparison with its competitors. The empirical findings of the study shed new light on the destination competitiveness literature and demonstrate that a destination's competitiveness should be examined from a market-specific perspective. The results also suggest that Hong Kong is more competitive than Macau, particularly in terms of its ability to attract Australian and mainland Chinese tourists, while price elasticity calculations suggest Singapore and South Korea are more competitive than Hong Kong

Feeling superior or deprived? Attitudes and underlying mentalities of residents towards Mainland Chinese tourists

The exponential increase in the number of Mainland Chinese tourists (MCTs) and their sudden influx to popular destinations worldwide have resulted in increasingly frequent media reports on their behaviours and encounters with hosts. However, the academic literature has inadequately analysed resident attitudes towards this surging and, in a few destinations, dominant group. The current study addresses this gap by examining the attitudes and mentalities of Hong Kong (HK) residents towards MCTs and revealing their underlying psychological mechanism. A total of 39 semi-structured interviews demonstrate that unfavourable attitudes towards MCTs have exceeded neutral or positive attitudes. Moreover, HK residents share two intertwined mentalities – sense of superiority and feeling of deprivation. Findings are discussed under the social identity meta-theoretical framework, and a cyclic psychological mechanism of ‘social categorisation–social identity–social comparison’ is identified underlying resident attitude and community mentality formation

Measuring returns on Hong Kong's tourism marketing expenditure

The objective of this study is to estimate the per dollar return on tourism marketing expenditure by the Hong Kong Tourism Board in major tourism markets, based on the dynamic modelling approach and cost-effectiveness ratios. The study finds that the estimated cost-effectiveness ratios for the major inbound tourism markets of Australia, China, the USA, the UK, South Korea and Singapore are positive, and that the estimated per dollar returns on tourism marketing expenditure are 9.5:1, 15:1, 2.5:1, 2.8:1, 7.2:1 and 8.7:1, respectively. The results suggest that in order to increase the tourist receipts from these markets, it is necessary to develop different and specific marketing strategies to attract tourists from each market

A Composite Leading Indicator for the Hotel Industry

This study constructs composite leading indicators to predict turns in the growth cycle of hotel occupancy for hotels in Hong Kong with different tariffs, as well as for all hotels in Hong Kong. First, a composite leading indicator for each of the top five source markets – mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, the USA and South Korea – was constructed using selected economic variables. Second, a composite leading indicator for all hotel categories in Hong Kong was constructed by combining the leading indicators constructed for each source market, using tourism market share and the cross-correlation coefficient as weightings. Third, the combined composite indicator was compared with the published OECD composite leading indicator and the OECD business survey index, which were constructed using the same weighting methods. In order to identify the best weighting method and to select the best composite leading indicator for different tariff categories of hotels, this study assessed the probability forecasts from the logistic regression leading indicator models using the quadratic probability score (QPS). The result shows that the composite leading indicator combined with tourism market share provides more accurate forecasts than the composite leading indicator combined with the coefficient of correlation