This study investigates how Asian-Canadians and Anglo-Canadians are different from each other in terms of their travel motivation and travel constraints. The data used for this study were obtained from the Travel Activity and Motivation Survey 2006 conducted by Statistics Canada. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were employed to analyze the data. The results indicate that there were substantial cultural differences in terms of travel motivation and travel constraints. For example, Asian-Canadians were more motivated to travel because of seeking knowledge and seeking relaxation than Anglo-Canadians; Asian-Canadians were more inhibited by time and money to travel than Anglo-Canadians. The implications of such differences were discussed

Halpenny, Elizabeth A

Yan, Nanxi

English

ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst

University of Massachusetts AmherstScholarWorks@UMass AmherstTravel and Tourism Research Association:Advancing Tourism Research Globally 2017 ttra International ConferenceDoes Culture Matter? A Comparison of Anglo-Canadians’ and Asian-Canadians’ TravelMotivations and Travel ConstraintsNanxi YanUniversity of AlbertaElizabeth A. HalpennyUniversity of AlbertaFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttraThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Travel and TourismResearch Association: Advancing Tourism Research Globally by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For moreinformation, please contact scholarworks@library.umass.edu.Yan, Nanxi and Halpenny, Elizabeth A., "Does Culture Matter? A Comparison of Anglo-Canadians’ and Asian-Canadians’ TravelMotivations and Travel Constraints" (2017). Travel and Tourism Research Association: Advancing Tourism Research Globally. 8.https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttra/2017/Grad_Student_Workshop/8 1 Does Culture Matter? A Comparison of Anglo-Canadians’ and Asian-Canadians’ Travel Motivations and Travel Constraints Introduction To develop effective marketing in the tourism industry, we want to know the factors shaping tourist behaviors. When marketing to tourists from different cultures, it is essential to find out what motivates people to travel and what constrains them from it in different countries. That is because past research has suggested that there is great potential for variability among different cultural groups in terms of travel behavior, preferences, and motivation (e.g., Kim & Lee, 2000), and failed to notice these differences can result in a marketing plan satisfying few people. Therefore, the need to understand travel motivation and travel constraints cross-culturally has been growing over time.  Culture can be defined as patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that are rooted in common values and social norms (Nakata & Sivakumar, 2001). It can be an antecedent to human thought and can shape behaviors (Berry, Poortinga, & Pandey, 1997; Triandis, 1994). There is considerable evidence to indicate that differences in cultural characteristics and values exist across the world (Hofstede, 1980; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). For example, according to Hofstede’s findings, Asian people scored highly on power distance, masculinity, long-term orientation, but low on uncertainly avoidance and individualism, while people in Anglo-Saxon societies were high on uncertainty avoidance and individualism, but low on power distance and long-term orientation (Chen, 2000). Moreover, several marketing research identified the significant influence of culture on customers’ product choice (e.g., Yucelt, 2000) and customers’ service quality evaluation (Liu, Furrer, & Sudharshan, 2007).  With the increment of international tourism in recent years, tourism scholars start to focus on cultural values’ impacts on tourists (Tsang & Ap, 2007). However, the role played by culture in tourists’ attitudes and behaviors warrants more research (Stepchankova, Kim, & Kirilenko, 2015). This is especially true for Asian tourists, as less research has examined Asians or Asian Canadians’ travel motivations and travel constraints (Deng, Walker, & Swinnerton, 2005). Accordingly, in response to issues outlined above, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between cultural difference and individuals’ travel characteristics (i.e. travel motivation and travel constraint). The research objectives were to: (a) Identify the differences in travel motivations between Asians in Canada and Anglo-Canadians; (b) Delineate the differences in travel constraints between Asians in Canada and Anglo-Canadians. Research Method Data Description Data Source. The dataset chosen is called Travel Activities and Motivation Survey 2006 (TAMS), which is sponsored by Statistics Canada. The types of information collected in this survey include: areas of Canada travelled to in the previous two years and travel intentions for the next two years, reasons of not travelling, and participation in recreational activities. The target population was all persons 18 years of age and older in each of the 10 Canadian provinces, excluding full-time residents of institutions. The sample size is 31,699. Measurement Cultural Difference. Respondents’ country of birth was recorded to measure cultural difference. The variable Cultural Difference has two categories, which are Anglo-Canadians  2 and Asian-Canadians. Respondent with an English ethnicity origin (i.e., born in Canada, Western/Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, or US) was calculated and recoded as Anglo-Canadians, while respondents with an Asian origin were calculated and recoded as Asian-Canadians. Travel Motivation. The variable used 15 questions under the category general travel attitude in the TAMS survey. Each question is measured by a 3-point Likert type scale, with 1=of no importance, and 3= highly important. One sample question is: The benefit I seek from pleasure and recreation travel is seeing something new and different.  Travel Constraint. Travel Constraint was assessed by 17 questions in the TAMS survey called non-traveler responses, which were measured dichotomous, with 1 means yes and 2 means no. One sample question is: Why did you not take an out-of-town trip of one or more nights in the last 2 years?... No particular reason.  Socio-demographics. To profile the characteristics of respondents in different cultural groups, their gender, education level, jobs, household income, and age were all measured by adopting variables: Highest Level of Education, Employment, Sex, House Income in 2005, and Age from TAMS. Analysis Procedure   Data analysis was completed by the following steps. First, a frequency analysis was conducted to analyze the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. Second, travel motivation items were factor analyzed to identify underlying dimensions. After that, one-way ANOVA tests were undertaken to identify whether there were any significant differences based on the factors obtains for people with different cultural background. Finally, logistic regressions were conducted to investigate whether there was a relation between cultural difference and travel constraints.                               Results In terms of respondents’ demographic characteristics, about 53.3 percentage of the Anglo-Canadian respondents were from the age range between 25 and 54 years old, compared to 62.9 percent of the Asian respondents. One noticeable characteristic of this sample is that many respondents from both cultural groups were highly educated (i.e., had at least some post-secondary education), with 66.4 percent of Asian-Canadians and 55.7 percent of Anglo-Canadians had received at least some post-secondary education. Another noticeable characteristic is that approximately 45.8 percent of Anglo-Canadian respondents had an annual household income over 60,000 Canadian dollars, while only 36.9 percent of Asian respondents had household income over 60,000 Canadian dollars. Chi-square tests were conducted and indicated that there were significant differences in respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics (excluding employment) in terms of their cultural differences. In all, it was found that Anglo-Canadians had higher household income, but Asian-Canadians received higher education.  Cultural Difference in Travel Motivations The results shown that Asian Canadians and Anglo-Canadians had different travel motivations. Among these motivation items, some key results include: Asian-Canadians deemed seeking relaxation (M=2.68, on a 3-point Likert type scale) as the most important motivator, F (1,22909) =8.20, p<.004, while Anglo-Canadians regarded seeking break from daily routine (M=2.65) the most important one, F(1,22957) =13.457, p<001. This result  3 supported past research on tourist motivation which reported that relaxation or escaping routine are major or highly important motivation factors for people to travel (e.g., Pearce & Lee, 2005). This finding also accord with previous research on Chinese people’s leisure motivations, which were primarily about relaxation (Freysinger & Chen, 1993). The results indicated that Asian Canadians were more likely to be motivated by relationship-related motives to travel, which are seeking to keep family ties alive, MAsian-Canadians=2.46, MAnglo-Canadians=2.28, F (1,22907) =80.915, p<.001, and seeking renew personal connections, MAsian-Canadians=1.97, MAnglo-Canadians=1.90, F (1,22416) =13.313, p<.001. The data also shown that Asian-Canadians (M=2.26) were more motivated to travel by seeking knowledge, history, cultures when compared with Anglo-Canadians(M=2.08), F (1,22534) =76.208, p<.001. Cultural Difference in Travel Constraints Logistic regressions were conducted to test the relationship between cultural difference and individual’s travel constraints. The results shown that Cultural Differences significantly influence Travel Constraints. In other words, individuals’ different cultural backgrounds affect their reasons not to travel. The data shown that Asian-Canadian respondents were 1.522 times more likely to be restricted by financial reasons (p<.001), and were 1.943 times more likely to be restricted by not enough time to travel than Anglo-Canadians (p<.001). These research findings firstly supported some previous research findings that structural constraints are the primary constraints for people (Chen et al., 2001), and it also supported Dong and Chick’s (2012) study which mentioned that lack of time and lack of money are the most important constraint that inhibit Chinese people to participate in leisure activities.                           Conclusion The findings of this research demonstrate that there are significant differences between Anglo-Canadians and Asian-Canadians in terms of their travel motivation and travel constraints. The findings of this research have practical implications. First, knowing the differences in travel motivations may enable government to plan recreation programs that can cater to the unique needs of Asian immigrants’ more effectively, and may help Asian immigrants to integrate in Canadian society better. Second, understanding the difference in travel behavior between Anglo-Canadians and Asian-Canadians may enhance tourism planning and management’s efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, with this information in mind, tourism managers may better satisfy diverse cultural groups’ needs, which may increase one destination or service place’s visitation and customer loyalty. This study has some limitations. First, the study targeted Asians who identified their country of birth as in Asian countries. Although most of them were from China, or were influenced by Chinese culture, it is possible that they may have been influenced by other cultures, and cause the issue of heterogeneity within Asian groups. Second, the study has not considered the effect of acculturation(Berry et al., 1997), as Asians who have stayed in Canada for several years may become highly acculturated, and may appear to act and think in Westerner’s way. In addition, the study has not controlled for socio-demographic variables, such as income and gender, as individuals with different occupation or gender may have totally different attitudes. Therefore, future research is recommended to work from these perspectives. In sum, this study is a good starting point to expand current knowledge by inclusion different cultures and overcoming leisure or tourism research field’s ethnocentrism (Chick & Dong, 2005).    4 References Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., & Pandey, J. (1997). Handbook of cross-cultural psychology. Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (2nd ed ). Chen, J. S. (2000). Cross-cultural differences in travel information acquisition among tourists from three Pacific-rim countries. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 24(2), 239–251. Chick, G., & Dong, E. (2005). Cultural constraints on leisure. (E. L. Jackson, Ed.). State college: Venture Publishing, Inc. Chen, P., Kerstetter, D., & Caldwell, L. (2001). Individuals’ interpretation of constraints: a new perspective on existing theory. In Proceedings of the 2000 Northeastern recreation research symposium (pp. 89–93). U.S. Department of Agriculture. Deng, J., Walker, G. J., & Swinnerton, G. (2005). Leisure attitudes: A comparison between Chinese in Canada and Anglo‐Canadians. Leisure/Loisir, 29(2), 239–273. http://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2005.9651331 Dong, E., & Chick, G. (2012). Leisure Constraints in Six Chinese Cities. Leisure Sciences, 34(5), 417–435. http://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2012.714702 Freysinger, V. J., & Chen, T. (1993). Leisure and Family in China: The Impact of culture. World Leisure & Recreation, 35(3), 22–24. http://doi.org/10.1080/10261133.1993.9673864 Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International Differences in Work Related Values. Biverly Hills: Sage. Kim, C., & Lee, S. (2000). Understanding the Cultural Differences in Tourist Motivation Between Anglo-American and Japanese Tourists. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 9(1-2), 153–170. http://doi.org/10.1300/J073v09n01_09 Liu, B. S., Furrer, O., & Sudharshan, D. (2007). Culture and Behavioral Intentions Toward Services. Journal of Service Research, 4(2), 118–129. http://doi.org/10.1177/109467050142004 Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224 Nakata, C., & Sivakumar, K. (2001). Instituting the Marketing Concept in a Multinational Setting: The Role of National Culture. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 29(3), 255–275. http://doi.org/10.1177/03079459994623   5 Pearce, P., & Lee, U. (2005). Developing the travel career approach to tourist motivation. Journal of Travel Research, 43(3), 226–237. Statistics Canada. (2006). Travel Activity and Motivation Survey 2006. Retrieved from http://odesi1.scholarsportal.info/webview/index.jsp?object=http://142.150.190.11:80%2Fobj%2FfStudy%2Ftams-87M0015-E-2006&mode=documentation&v=2&top=yes Stepchankova, S., Kim, H., & Kirilenko, A. (2015). Cultural differences in pictorial destination images: Russia through the camera lenses of American and Korean tourists. Journal of Travel Research, 54(6), 758–773. Triandis, H. C. (1994). Culture and social behavior. McGraw-Hill Series in Social Psychology., 3, 330. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.02.001 Tsang, N. K.-F., & Ap, J. (2007). Tourists’ Perceptions of Relational Quality Service Attributes: A Cross-Cultural Study. Journal of Travel Research, 45(3), 355–363. http://doi.org/10.1177/0047287506295911 Yucelt, U. (2000). Product choice in different cultures: An empirical investigation among Turkish consumers. Journal of International Marketing and Marketing Research, 25(2), 59–68.               6 Appendix Table 1 Profile of Respondents Characteristic Frequency (%) Chi-square Anglo-Canadians Asian-Canadians Count Column N % Count Column N %       194.764*** Age  18-24 years old 1653 5.8% 182 5.7%  25-34 years old 3606 12.7% 507 15.8%  35-44 years old 5289 18.6% 861 26.9%  45-54 years old 6252 22.0% 649 20.2%  55-64 years old 5432 19.1% 498 15.5%  65 and over 6200 21.8% 508 15.9%        19.003*** Sex Male 12154 42.7% 1499 46.8%  Female 16278 57.3% 1706 53.2%        271.719*** Education Less than high school 4685 16.7% 430 13.6%   High school diploma 7212 25.7% 632 20.0%   Some post-secondary 2824 10.1% 251 8.0%   Post-secondary diploma/certificate 5720 20.4% 542 17.2%   University degree 7649 27.2% 1299 41.2%        .941 Employment Paid worker 12045 82.0% 1388 81.1%  Self-employed / unpaid worker 2639 18.0% 324 18.9%        112.519*** Household Income Less than $20,000 3187 13.0% 468 17.5%  $20,000 - $39,999 5271 21.5% 694 26.0%  $40,000 - $59,999 4807 19.6% 524 19.6%  $60,000 - $79,999 3731 15.2% 375 14.1%  $80,000 - $99,999 2682 11.0% 239 9.0%  $100,000 or more 4802 19.6% 368 13.8%  Note. *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001.   7 Table 2 Principal Components Factor Analysis for Travel Motivations between Anglo-Canadians and Asian-Canadians  Factor Loadings Item Means   Construct and Items 1 2 3 4 Anglo-Canadians Asian-Canadians F-value p-value Knowledge and Competence Seek knowledge history, cultures, places .768    2.08 2.26 76.208 .000*** Seek stimulate mind -intellectually .750    1.88 2.01 66.784 .000*** Seek enrich your perspective on life .745    2.42 2.43 64.303 .000*** Seek - do something different .642    2.40 2.42 .231 .631 Seek be physically challenged/energized .463    1.78 1.84 43.055 .000*** Relaxation and Escape Routine Seek to relax and relieve stress  .768   2.63 2.68 8.200 .004** Seek break from day-to-day environment  .687   2.65 2.63 13.457 .000*** Seek have life with no fixed schedule  .660   2.39 2.33 26.039 .000*** Relationships Seek to keep family ties alive   .839  2.28 2.46 80.915 .000*** Seek renew personal connections people   .693  1.90 1.97 13.313 .000*** Memory Creation Seek to create lasting memories    .631 2.49 2.36 45.397 .000*** Seek stories share/something talk about    .597 1.73 1.72 .322 .570 Eigenvalues 3.274 2.037 1.466 1.039     Variance explained (%) 17.104 14.179 11.625 9.199     Reliability coefficient  0.75 0.65 0.57 0.54     Note. *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001; measured on a 3-point Likert type scale, 1= of no importance, 3= highly important.   8 Table 3 Estimated Binary Logistic Regressions of Anglo-Canadians and Asian-Canadians' Travel Constraints Travel Constraint (DV) SE B Wald Exp(B) Sig No Trips-No particular reason .091 -.232 6.509 .793 .011* No trips- No interest/nothing to see .114 -.835 53.953 .434 .000*** No trips-Too expensive .086 .167 3.770 1.182 .052 No trips - Financial reasons .072 .420 34.011 1.522 .000*** No trips - Recently made major purchase .311 -.289 .861 .749 .353 No trips - Not enough time to travel .087 .664 57.707 1.943 .000*** No trips - No family/friends to visit .202 .293 2.102 1.340 .147 No trips - Nobody to travel with .219 -.141 .415 .868 .520 No trips - Language difficulties 1.081 3.396 9.875 29.835 .002** No trips - Too much hassle to travel .300 -.246 .671 .782 .413 No trips - Sick/infirm/disabled .105 -.633 36.295 .531 .000*** No trips - Too old to travel .189 -1.126 35.633 .324 .000*** No trips - Health issues at destination .339 -.393 1.346 .675 .246 No trips - Worried about terrorism .469 .448 .911 1.565 .340 No trips - Young children .135 .877 42.396 2.403 .000*** No trips - I am done travelling .330 -.980 8.835 .375 .003** No trips - Some other reason .093 .135 2.123 1.145 .145  Note. *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001; measured by 1=Yes, 0=No.    9          

Does Culture Matter? A Comparison of Anglo-Canadians’ and Asian-Canadians’ Travel Motivations and Travel Constraints

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Does Culture Matter? A Comparison of Anglo-Canadians’ and Asian-Canadians’ Travel Motivations and Travel Constraints

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