The Tourism Market and Tourist Behaviors - Influenced by Distance Decay in Hk

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Chart 1

[pic 1]

Seeing from the chart, it shows that long haul markets have similarities and differences when they choose the places to visit. Tourists from the USA, Canada, the UK, France and the Middle East prefer to appreciate the natural landscape, like Victoria Peak which is the landmark of Hong Kong and tourists can overlook the whole city on it. Besides, the data shows tourists from long haul markets what we choose do not like to visit Disneyland except the Middle East. Because in those four countries, the USA, the UK and France have Disneyland in their own country and Canada is close to the USA. So they do not need to visit the repeated attraction. However, the Middle East has no similar theme park like Disneyland so they would like to visit it in Hong Kong. Moreover, the activities they taken are also affected by their culture. The Americas and European people have more open culture that they are willing to experience the night life in Hong Kong. However, due to the religions faith, fewer people from the Middle East participate in these activities. (Analyze from chart 2)

Chart 2

[pic 2]

In this shopping items bought chart, we can see the proportion of the items the five countries bought in 2013. The long haul markets tend to spend most of their money on clothing. Most of them buy the ready-made wear because of the much cheaper price. Besides, Hong Kong is also known as the duty free zone while people prefer to buy luxury goods there. But western countries are where the brands coming from, the visitors can get cheaper price in their home countries. Compared with short haul markets, long haul markets spend less on luxury goods. Meanwhile, they use much money buy souvenirs since they want to bring the different culture to their hometown. Also, long haul market tourists tend to spend more money on electrical and photographic goods than short haul markets. Price of household electronics is lower than the price in their countries with better quality. (Analyze from Chart 3)

Chart 3

[pic 3]

The graph about overnight visitors spending shows the biggest difference between long haul markets and short haul markets. The long haul markets spend at least 10% more on hotel bills than the spending on shopping. Under the support of the government and the investment of social capital, Hong Kong hospitality industry has been developing well. Therefore, long haul tourists evaluate hotel higher than shopping and sightseeing. However, they only spend about 1% or even less on tours, which means they use only 500 HK$ to 700 HK$ per capita. It’s merely enough for Hong Kong Disneyland or Hong Kong Ocean Park. Within the 5 long haul markets, the Middle East spends the biggest amount of money, but unlike the other long haul markets, the Middle East people shop more and spend less on hotel bills. (Analyze from Chart 4)

Chart 4

[pic 4]

Chart 5

[pic 5]

The graphs show that tourists from the Middle East spend more money but they give the lowest score to the trip satisfaction probably owing to the different culture.

(Chart 6) Through the analysis of the data, we can see that tourists in long haul markets pay more attention to experience the different culture, special attractions and are willing to relax themselves on vacation. With the increase of the distance, the profiles of the long haul markets do not change dramatically.

Chart 6

[pic 6]

2.2 Short Haul Market to Hong Kong

The short haul markets that we choose all from Asia. Different from long haul markets, more female tourists in short haul markets travel in Hong Kong. The length they stay in Hong Kong is shorter than the length in long haul markets, especially tourists from South Korea only stay 1.9 nights on average. Besides, many of them only visited Hong Kong because of the short distance. Compared with long haul markets, the data shows that not all countries from short haul markets want to participate in optional tour like South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. (Analyze from Table 1 and Chart 7)

Table 2

Overnight Visitors from Short Haul Market to Hong Kong

Short Haul Market

Japan

South Korea

Malaysia

Singapore

India

Visitor Characteristics

1.Male

48

36

43

42

59

2.Mean Age

41.2

36.9

37.9

40.2

38.1

3.Working

76

70

77

78

75

Visitor Profile

Visitor details

1.Length of stay

2.3

1.9

2.9

3.0

3.4

2.With companion

84

91

93

93

91

3.Non-Guided Tour

77

64

90