Tourism and Marketing: Understanding Chinese Tourist Expectations

Running head: TOURISM AND MARKETING
TOURISM AND MARKETING
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Introduction
The tourism managers and marketers must take steps to assess the needs and preferences
of the tourists with the purpose of providing the same with the best possible touring experience
and retaining the loyalty of the customers towards their commendable services. Again, the
touring managers must identify the expectations of the Chinese population, influenced by their
culture with the objective of drawing the attention of the customers through effective value
propositions. Therefore, the purpose of undertaking the research is to develop a coherent
understanding of expectations of the Chinese tourists through cultural influential factors. The
research will also outline a set of recommended activities for the tourism providers to serve the
Chinese markets effectively.
Assessment of Chinese culture and its impact on tourist behavior
The Chinese culture is mostly driven by a restrained society which restricts the
preferences of the inhabitants to the local culture rather than inter-mingling with the different
other cultural constructs. In this relation, the Chinese population mostly appreciates their home
culture and even while traveling outbound the Chinese population expects to find
correspondence to their own culture and values. Hsu and Huang (2016) noted that China follows
a Confucian culture which is the mixture of top-down patriarchy and bottom-up social mobility.
On the other hand, Chiu, Zeng and Cheng (2016) reflected on the Chinese culture by stating
that the Chinese population is tied between ambition for growth and regulations which affected
their sense of morality. However, it has been noted that the Chinese population developed
conservative buying behavior and extreme price sensitivity which is reflected as they make a
humble living at home while spending for leisure holidays.

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Lu et al. (2016) marked that it is a common belief that the Chinese outbound travelers are
mainly interested in shopping and restricts their tastes to Chinese dishes, which is wrong. The
changing theological aspects of Chinese buying behaviors and tour preferences have affected the
rate of operations of the tour managers and the marketing agents. On the other hand, Bi and
Lehto (2018) stated that the changing economic background of the Chinese travelers backed
their capability of empowering a leisure outbound touring experience. It has been noted that
around 80 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas while spending about US$80 billion which
will grow to 100 million by 2020 (Lee & Bai, 2016). The predictions made it clear that the
Chinese travelers are into exotic tour packages even though they are price sensitive. On the other
hand, Chinese food culture is generally known for its diversity, flexibility and adaptability while
encouraging the acceptance of wide range of vegetables, starchy foods like rice and noodles and
meat items.
The tourism development operations of the touring managers and the marketers are
chiefly based on the assessment of the food and the lodging culture of the clients. In this relation,
the delineation of the food culture of the Chinese outbound travelers would enable the same in
arranging the tour packages in orientation with the preferences of the customers. It has been
noted that around 93.5% Chinese population are adaptable with the international cuisines as long
as they are edible and sophisticated, which contradicted with the previous ideas of restrained
Chinese people’s preferences towards food (Cheng, Wong & Prideaux, 2017). On the other
hand, Fu, Cai and Lehto (2017) proclaimed in a research study that Chinese population
differentiated their local foods from the international cuisines based on the principles of core
eating behavior, appetizing assurance and familiar flavor. Therefore, after the assessment of the

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food habits of the Chinese population, it might be noted that they are enthusiastic towards trying
new cuisines as part of their food.
On the other hand, it has been noted through the research undertake by Pan et al. (2017)
that the Chinese outbound travelers are more likely to search for economic lodging experiences.
The research enumerated that more than 67% of the Chinese population prefers economic
lodging which is balanced through leisure dining and site seeing experiences (Shen et al., 2017).
On the other hand, Jørgensen, Law and King (2017) opined that more than 27% of the Chinese
population encourages leisure dining along with royal lodging experience. Again, it has been
found that the young Chinese outbound travelers are more open to short term rentals for their
economic criteria while prioritizing the touring experience while minimizing expenditures on
lodging and food experiences. It has been noted that 61% of the Chinese population are
millennials (GenY) who are changing the face of Chinese culture and touring expectations
(Wang, So & Sparks, 2017). Therefore, the changing face of expectations of the Chinese
outbound tourists are greatly dependent on millennials, who prefer to visit different destinations
and spend money for site seeing and food over lodging.
Moreover, the cultural shifts of the Chinese tourists are also noticed through their
preferences towards visiting the lesser known sites over metropolitan locations. Du, Buckley
and Tang (2016) reflected on a survey stating that around 48% of the Chinese prefers to visit
lesser-known destinations while experiencing local culture. On the other hand, it has been
noticed that most of the Chinese tourists prefer to go alone or in small groups in tours which
again is an important point of consideration for the tour managers and the marketers. The
delineation of the preferences of the Chinese travelers would support the tour managers and the
marketers while determining the package that they might propose. According to Cheng, Wong