Anna Kwek

Chinese Tourists and Confucianism

Despite the widespread belief in the significance of Confucianism on the behaviour of Mainland Chinese people, limited empirical studies have been conducted to examine the Chinese cultural and philosophical ideology in a tourism context. As an exploratory attempt, this paper investigates the influence of Confucian values on Mainland Chinese corporate travellers at leisure on the Gold Coast, Australia. Based on participant observations of group package tours, this paper suggests that the notion of harmony dominates and underlines the Chinese tourists’ behaviour as tourists. The notion of harmony, further, was intricately related with such themes as respect for authority, relationship building or guanxi and conformity. Heavily influenced by the values of Confucianism, the travellers placed much emphasis on maintaining not only the correct and appropriate behaviour, which included paying due respect to ones superior, but also practising forbearance conforming to the interests of a wider group rather than individual desires. Relationship building appears to be a salient motivation, underlying the behaviour of the tourists. Confirming the suggestions from other disciplinary fields, such as Chinese psychology and social psychology, this paper highlights the need for more research attempts in this area for practical and theoretical advancements in our understanding.

Chinese Participation in Adventure Tourism A Study of Generation Y International Students’ Perceptions

This study explores Chinese Generation Y’s perceptions of adventure tourism experiences and their reasoning in deciding to participate. Focus group interviews reveal that Chinese youths have a unique generational sociocultural perception of participation in adventure activities. Much like their Western counterparts, members of China’s Generation Y want to experience the freedom of international travel that enables self-development and maturity, but they also have a strong sense of familial obligation and distinctive cultural beliefs that underpin their consumer decision making. Safety concerns of both the young people and their parents, along with self-efficacy beliefs regarding their physical ability to participate in the experience, can also reduce their likelihood of participation in adventure activities that they consider to be too risky or physically challenging. The study emphasizes that the design and marketing of adventure experiences must consider the unique Chinese generational psychology of this cohort and has implications for practice and future research.

Beyond the Mass Tourism Stereotype Power and Empowerment in Chinese Tour Packages

Low-priced tour packages are mass tourism power projection sites where providers attempt to restrict tourist power. This study adopts a hybrid design that incorporates dual analytic autoethnography and blog analysis, sharing not only the authors’ experiences and insights into the negotiation between supplier attempts to disempower tourists and reciprocal efforts of tourists to self-empower in all-inclusive tour packages, but also viewpoints of other tour participants collected during the tours and from the Internet. Tour experiences were negotiated through power exchanges. In this “powerscape,” we were subjected to disempowerment strategies, including domination, intimidation, reliance creation, and trust building, while our self-empowerment ranged from active resistance to nonresistance. Different disempowerment strategies appear to solicit specific reactions. Our exploratory study provides insight into the power dynamics implicit in mass tourism and identifies several contextual factors that shape power relationships.

How “Face” Matters: Chinese Corporate Tourists in Australia

ABSTRACT Corporate travel is a growing segment within the Chinese tourism market, yet despite the widespread belief that cultural values influence behavior, little research has examined the touring experiences of Mainland Chinese corporate travelers. This study, based on participant observations of 12 corporate group package tours, suggests that the “face” concept underlies the touring experiences of Chinese corporate travelers. The travelers emphasized the need to pay appropriate respect to one’s superiors, maintain relationships through gift-giving, and participate in social networking to establish and maintain positive relationships. Implications for tourism scholars and planners are provided.

Consuming tourism experiences: Mainland Chinese corporate travellers in Australia

Previous researchers have studied the consumption values of Chinese consumers; however, limited studies focused on the consumption behaviour of Chinese corporate travellers. This study explores the consumption behaviour of Mainland Chinese corporate travellers at leisure. Participant observation of 12 travel groups indicates that tourism is seen as a reflection of modern lifestyle and understood in the narrow sense of material consumption and modern developments in the society. The findings demonstrate how Chinese corporate travellers embrace aspects of materialistic consumerism that not only offers luxury and status recognition but also reflects a particular form of collective gaze that constantly searches for modern development.

Intra-Cultural Variance of Chinese Tourists in Destination Image Project: Case of Queensland, Australia

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the notion of “intra-cultural variance” among Chinese tourists/leisure markets. The concept of “intra-cultural variance” in tourism and leisure studies has been under-researched to date, often being located under the umbrella of “cross-cultural” research (Kim & Prideaux, 2005; Tai & Tam, 1996; Tse, Belk & Zhou, 1989). In order to demonstrate the relevance and significance of the “intra-cultural variance” concept in tourism/leisure marketing, particularly within the growing Chinese markets, this paper studied two Chinese markets: namely Mainland Chinese and Singaporean Chinese in Queensland, Australia. This study employed a qualitative approach, utilising tourists/leisure marketing materials in the respective markets. Based upon content and semiotics analyses of 323 marketing materials for Mainland Chinese market and 329 for the Singaporean Chinese market, this paper identifies current marketing themes in each group. It further elaborates comparative elements in the two markets, providing recommendations to the industry marketers. It is finally argued that the concept of “intra-cultural variance” in the Chinese markets has significant marketing implications and continuing research on the notion is essential.

The Impacts of Self-Esteem and Resilience on Academic Performance: An Investigation of Domestic and International Hospitality and Tourism Undergraduate Students

The rise in student demand for international education has presented many challenges to tourism and hospitality educators and institutions, as well as students. A critical concern for 1st-year undergraduates, and for international students in particular, lies in academic adjustment issues, which may be related to student self-esteem and resilience and may ultimately affect academic performance. Although investigators have made many attempts to discern the problems students face when studying in English as a second language, very little is known about the influence of self-esteem and resilience on academic performance, particularly that of tourism and hospitality students. This research explores the impacts of self-esteem and resilience factors on the academic performance of international students compared to domestic Australian students. The results suggest that for both groups, self-esteem and resilience are significant predictors of academic performance. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for teacher–student interaction are discussed.

Insights into the Academic Motivation of Tourism and Hospitality Students in a Research Methods Course

Consistent growth in tourism and hospitality international students in Australian universities makes it imperative higher education institutions remain vigilant in understanding diverse student cohorts to ensure the best possible learning environments are provided. To this end, the present study sought to investigate academic motivation among first year undergraduate students in a tourism and hospitality program in Australia. Survey participants consisted of 634 domestic Australian and Asian international students. Using the Academic Motivation Scale, this study identified the influence of cultural differences, assessment types and student status on academic performance. The findings of this study revealed that Asian students demonstrated higher intrinsic motivation to learn, while domestic Australian students were more extrinsically motivated. Implications for tourism management, tourism industry and education are discussed.

The Schoolie experience: social identity and disconfirmation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe experiences of high school graduates attending a significant annual celebratory event (Schoolies) on the Gold Coast, Australia. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive, qualitative paradigm informed by social construction ideologies was adopted. Data were collected via in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings Key findings relate to attendees’ notion of excitement and perception of social identity, which was found to encompass both a rite of passage and event exclusivity. Attendees’ sense of identity developed from the unique nature of the event as well as the anticipation of excitement and the actual experience. Originality/value This study makes a novel contribution in that it takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together the sociological, social psychological, and marketing disciplines in an event management context.

Asian Destinations: Perspectives on Planning, Management, and Marketing

Tourism in Asia has experienced healthy growth in the last few years and is projected to grow at a rate above the world’s average. While there has been an increasing scholarly interest in Asian tourism activities and development, existing academic knowledge on managing Asian tourism destinations is highly fragmented. A cursory examination of literature suggests three main themes of destination literature: Planning, Management, and Marketing. Accordingly, we organized the chapters into these three core categories. For each of the three themes, we provide a brief evaluation of the current literature with a specific focus on Asian destinations and a summary of chapters addressing the theme. The chapter concludes with a call for further effort into several under-explored research areas.