Tourists’ impulse buying behavior at duty-free shops: the moderating effects of time pressure and shopping involvement

This study investigates the consumer behavior of tourists at duty-free shops who experience different limitations on shopping than do consumers at general shopping malls. The target for sampling was outbound tourists who shopped in two hotel duty-free shops in Seoul, Korea. The final analysis used data from 343 respondents and the results revealed (1) the more positive the emotions felt by tourists, the more impulsive buying behavior occurs; (2) time pressure during shopping reinforces negative emotions, resulting in increased affective impulse buying; and (3) increased shopping involvement directly increases cognitive impulse buying.     

Risk Perception and Buying Behavior: An Examination of Some Relationships in the Context of Cruise Tourism in Jamaica

Cruise tourism continues to grow substantially, even as many other forms of travel stagnate. In this era of increasing worldwide violence against tourists, safety, security, and risk abatement are becoming principal components in travelers' decision-making processes. This work examines the issue of perceived risk and safety and what impact these perceptions have on shopping behavior. The research takes place in Jamaica, a country with a reputation for aggressive vendors. Findings indicate that those visitors who traveled with others spent more time shopping and purchased more. Additionally, it was found that first time visitors express higher levels of discomfort with their surroundings than did repeat visitors, thus inhibiting purchase behavior. Finally, it was found that levels of perceived risk and security did have an impact on a traveler's intention to return to Jamaica.     

The memorable souvenir-shopping experience: antecedents and outcomes

This study examines the relationship among authenticity, satisfaction, co-creation, memorable souvenir-shopping experiences, and place attachment. A post-holiday web-based survey was conducted among tourists to Rovaniemi, Finland, and a valid sample of 301 tourists was used for data analysis. The survey results show that satisfaction and co-creation during onsite souvenir shopping at a tourism destination create memorable souvenir shopping experiences, and that such memories enhance tourists’ feelings of attachment to the destination. The implications for retail management are that souvenir vendors should offer a large assortment of souvenirs to suit tourists’ individual tastes. Souvenir retailers can enhance customer satisfaction through taking such steps as training personnel on customer shopping satisfaction, extending operating hours, broadening the accepted means of payment, and improving the quality and display of products as well as the external appearance of their shops. Additionally, souvenir retailers should interact with customers and engage in onsite co-creation to arouse interest and attention.     

Tourists' shopping experiences at street markets: Cross-country research

Considering shopping as one of the most important motivations for travel, this study focuses on tourists' shopping attitudes towards street markets while on a vacation. Specifically, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model that assesses how price consciousness and perceived utility, as critical drivers of attitudes in street markets, may influence tourist satisfaction and future intentions. As opposed to the structure of previous research, this study is also based on a cross-national comparative study conducted among foreign tourists visiting Algarve, Portugal and Bodrum, Turkey, in the summer of 2011. Study findings confirm that price and utility perceptions are the most important marketplace cues and higher level of satisfaction moderates tourists' willingness to return or recommend street markets in both destinations.     

Developing a Typology of Chinese Shopping Tourists: An Application of the Schwartz Model of Universal Human Values

This study aims to develop a typology of Chinese shopping tourists based on the Schwartz values. As a medium for investigating rich segmented markets, values emerge as an alternative variable for personality, lifestyle, and other demographic and socioeconomic segmentation variables. Convenience sampling is adopted in this study, and 511 usable responses in China are obtained. Results of the factor analysis reveal the following five dimensions of personal values among Chinese shopping tourists: self-enhancement, universalism, assurance, self-direction, and benevolence. The cluster analysis, which used the aforementioned five dimensions, identify the following clusters: uncertainty (Cluster 1), passion (Cluster 2), balance (Cluster 3), and conservation (Cluster 4). This study provides insights into the nature of personal value of Chinese shopping tourists by applying the Schwartz values, and identifies the shopping travel characteristics of Chinese shopping tourists. The results of this study are expected to assist destination marketing organizations in creating strategies to provide better shopping environments and services for tourists, and to achieve higher levels of tourist satisfaction.     

Shopping experiences: International tourists in Beijing's Silk Market

This study examines international tourists' experiences in Beijing's Silk Market, one of the China's most well-known tourist markets. Tourists' spontaneous reviews on TripAdvisor were analyzed through Leximancer, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. The study confirms that markets can be major tourism attractions and can provide important experiences for international tourists. Most international tourists were impressed with their Silk Market trip. The dominant narratives of their experiences were the “price” of the items they “bought”, the “fun” of “bargaining”, and the “fake” quality of the products. Further analyses show that different satisfaction groups used somewhat different narratives to represent their shopping experiences and that male international tourists enjoyed the Silk Market experiences more than their female counterparts.     

Activity Segmentation of the International Heritage Tourism Market to Taiwan

The heritage tourism market has developed from being regarded as a small niche segment to a mainstream market of considerable size. In Taiwan, diversified heritage resources hold considerable appeal to the international tourism market. Little research has been completed on international heritage tourists to Taiwan, so this study utilized Taiwan as a case study and examined international tourists to the destination. It first employed cluster analysis based on activity participation to segment the market and test for the existence of “heritage tourists”. Three groups of international tourists to Taiwan were identified and they were labelled as “heritage”, “shopping” and “non-specialists”. The heritage group had a high participation rate in visiting heritage relics (90.6%). The study also profiled tourists according to the reasons they travelled to Taiwan and socio-demographic variables. The heritage tourists and other activity participation groups were compared to reveal the major motivational and socio-demographic differences involved. The findings showed that “international heritage tourists to Taiwan” were a group of visitors with relatively younger ages, middle levels of income and higher educational levels. The study defined heritage tourists who indicated visiting heritage sites as part of their reason for visiting Taiwan as “motivated heritage visitors”. Other heritage tourists who participated in heritage activities, but did not list heritage tourism as a reason for visiting Taiwan, were defined as “heritage site visitors”. Finally, the study profiled the two groups of heritage tourists and compared them, with significant differences being found in ages and nationalities.     

Maori-based Tourism in Rotorua: Perceptions of Place by Domestic Visitors

This paper reports findings from a survey of 763 Auckland residents. The research examined attitudes towards the resort town of Rotorua as a short-break destination with specific reference to the role that Maori culture plays in the formation of perceptions of Rotorua. The Te Arawa Maori people have been closely associated with tourism for over 140 years and this is recognised by the domestic market. However, the Maori component of Rotorua is found not to be an attraction. Rather, tourists are drawn to other facets of the product. While this is evidence for the fact that Rotorua is a multi-use product in tourism, given the role that travel is supposed to play in bridging gaps between cultures, tourism seems to be failing in this respect. It is suggested that an emphasis upon 'traditional authenticities' aimed at certain overseas segments misses the contemporary vibrant nature of Maori music and dance performance that might in fact have a wider appeal, including the domestic tourism market.     

Ancient poetry in contemporary Chinese tourism

Classical poetry is an important part of Chinese culture. This study explores its roles in contemporary Chinese tourism based on participant observation of tourist destinations in the Three Gorges and surrounding area along the Yangtze River and content analysis of tourism guidebooks. Classical poetry is used to guide Chinese tourists in terms of what to gaze at and how to gaze. Specifically, first, poets and their poems create historical and cultural value for a place, which forms an essential foundation for its attractiveness as an object for Chinese tourists gaze. Second, poems may be used to enhance tourists' aesthetic appreciation of a landscape along the spatial and temporal dimensions, creating transcending poetic experiences. Such influence of classical poetry exemplifies the cultural continuity in China that should be well understood and considered in contemporary tourism. Implications in tourism development and marketing, aesthetic experience creation, environmental interpretation, and literary tourism are discussed.     

Relationship between the arrangement of shopping activities and consumer prepurchase perceptions of group package tours

Shopping is an indispensable part of a group package tour and an activity that substantially affects the travel experience and quality. However, few studies have focused on shopping-spot types and arrangements. This study examined the effects of shopping-spot types and arrangements in trip itineraries on consumer prepurchase perceptions. Survey data were collected from 282 outbound tourists in Taiwan. A 2?×?2 mixed factorial design was employed to test the hypotheses. Our main results demonstrate that a process-oriented shopping spot combined with an official tour itinerary was preferred by consumers. By contrast, a product-oriented shopping spot combined with a tourist shopping habitat was less preferred by consumers. The findings suggest strategic directions for travel managers to design package tour itineraries and conduct marketing planning. Managerial implications of this study and future research directions are discussed.     

Mainland Chinese Tourists to Hawaii: Their Characteristics and Preferences

Tourism is the most economically important industry to the United States' only island state, Hawaii. With Hawaii's highest spending and largest international tourist segment, Japanese, decreasing significantly (a loss from over 2,000,000 in 1997 to just over 1,000,000 Japanese visitors in 2009), Hawaii needs to prepare to replace the significant decrease of Japanese visitors with a new visitor market. The logical new international visitor target market would be tourists from the fastest growing economy in the world, that being China. The purpose of this study is to explore the differences in attitudinal and behavioral characteristics, and preferences of Chinese tourists in Hawaii according to key sociodemographic variables. The results of this study conclude that sociodemographic variables show significant differences in attitudinal and behavioral characteristics. For example, when comparing the number of times a respondent had visited Hawaii, first-time visitors showed the highest level of preference for a deluxe hotel while second-time visitors showed the highest level of preference for a budget hotel. Those who had visited Hawaii three or more times indicated the highest preference for a first class hotel and also to be more interested in high-end shopping. First-time visitors showed the highest percentage in the lowest category of estimated cost of gifts (US$0–US$300). This indicates that Hawaii tour operators should focus on introducing more discounted shopping to first-time visitors.

The results of this study are likely to be beneficial for understanding Chinese tourists and establishing marketing policies to enhance their satisfaction and raise their intention to revisit Hawaii. The findings of this study could be helpful for all stakeholders including local tour operators, the hotels, and Hawaii's tourism officials.     

Shopping destination competitiveness: scale development and validation

ABSTRACT

As shopping becomes ever more important to tourists, this interest increasingly drives their destination choices. That is, shopping tourists tend to consider destinations to be more attractive and competitive if they offer key shopping resources. Therefore, this study aims to develop and validate a measurement scale for shopping destination competitiveness, which can provide an identification of shopping- and destination-specific attributes and dimensions. In theoretical terms, this study contributes to the literature by integrating a model of destination competitiveness with a servicescape model and with the current Globe Shopping Index, to investigate shopping destinations at a macro-level. Five hundred and twenty-three usable samples were obtained for data analysis. The findings suggest that shopping destination competitiveness has nine key dimensions: shopping atmosphere, merchandise, store service orientation, affordability, Korean pop culture, safety climate, accessibility, government promotion, and attractiveness.     

Shopping behavior of Chinese tourists visiting the United States: Letting the shoppers do the talking

Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. were interviewed to explore their shopping behaviours and to understand their shopping experiences. This study revealed that the Chinese tourists were interested in a very large variety of U.S. merchandise, ranging from antique watches and jewellery to health products and running shoes. They perceived the quality of American products to be consistent with prices lower than similar products at home. Male tourists in the study tended to be more satisfied with their shopping experiences than females, but all informants expressed a desire for more Chinese-speaking sales assistants as well as Chinese shopping guides and signage. Informants asked that Chinese credit cards be accepted in the U.S. stores, and would encourage banks of both countries to find ways to cooperate with payment methods to make tourists’ shopping experience more enjoyable and free from inconveniences. Informants had a positive image of shopping in the U.S., especially when compared to some European and Asian destinations. Implications of both the methods and the findings for destination marketing strategies are also discussed in the paper.     

免税购物游客感知价值的量表开发与实证检验

游客感知价值源自营销学领域的顾客价值理论,是游客基于感知利得与利失的权衡对旅游产品或旅游服务的总体评价,已成为旅游企业稳固竞争优势的新动源。现阶段,国内外免税购物市场竞争局势日渐激烈,免税购物游客感知价值研究能为免税店管理方提供科学的运营管理依据。文章以有消费经历的免税购物游客为研究对象,研究区域为三亚国际免税城,运用SPSS 22.0和AMOS 17.0软件对正式调研所获得的324份有效样本数据进行实证分析。在梳理游客感知价值测量相关文献的基础上,严格遵循量表开发的规范步骤(确定构念范围、发展初始测项、纯化初始测项、预调研、正式调研、探索性因子分析、验证性因子分析、信效度检验),开发了包含6个维度24个测项的免税购物游客感知价值量表,6个维度分别为感知环境价值、感知成本价值、感知管理价值、感知功能价值、感知服务价值、感知声誉价值,并通过构建结构方程模型检验了量表的稳定性。最后,总结了研究的理论贡献与管理启示。     

Shopping destinations and trust – Tourist attitudes: Scale development and validation

Shopping is one of the oldest tourist activities and commonly accounts for the majority of travel budgets. However, tourists have expressed concerns regarding the risks they face in shopping destinations. Scholars have suggested that trust is a mechanism for reducing the complexity of human behavior in a situation that involves uncertainty. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the trust of tourists toward shopping destinations. Specifically, the study attempts to develop and validate the measurement properties of a scale, which measures shopping destination trust. The target sample comprised shopping tourists. Via convenience sampling, 708 usable samples were collected in Hong Kong. Subsequently, purification of the measurement scale, assessment of the latent structure, and scale validation were conducted. Results reveal that shopping destination trust consists of nine dimensions. The present research is expected to shed light on potential research topics in the field of shopping tourism.     

The influence of face on Chinese tourists’ gift purchase behaviour: The moderating role of the gift giver–receiver relationship

This study investigated the influence of face as a Chinese cultural value on Chinese outbound group tourists' gift purchase behaviour. Specifically, the study examined how face's impact on gift purchase behaviour is moderated by the gift giver–receiver relationship. The results confirmed that self-face concern positively affected gift selection effort, brand orientation, and purchase cost in gift purchase. The type and status aspects of the giver–receiver relationship were found to moderate the relationship between face concern and gift purchase behaviour. Self-face concern has a stronger impact on gift purchase for non-family receivers and higher status receivers. The findings suggest that cultural values and social relations in the home society exert influence on tourist behaviours even though tourists are physically away from home. This study also provides valuable practical implications for destinations wishing to better understand the shopping needs of Chinese tourists.     

A Multilevel Investigation of the Role of Retail Stores in Cross-Border Shopping

This study postulates that individual retail stores play a central role in attracting tourists to engage in cross-border shopping, and it examines both individual-level and store-level effects on cross-border shopping motives and behaviors. It proposes a framework of relationships leading from cross-border shopping motives to store outcomes and destination outcomes through the mediating roles of store loyalty program benefits and store shopping satisfaction. This study further examines the cross-level direct and moderating effects of store brand image. By using a multilevel design, this study seeks to better identify the role of retail stores in tourism shopping.     

Exploring the influence of tourists’ happiness on revisit intention in the context of Traditional Chinese Medicine cultural tourism

Based on how tourists interpret the destination experience and on attachment theory, this study investigates the influencing mechanism of tourists' happiness on revisit intention for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) cultural tourism destinations. Three tourist samples confirm the three dimensions of tourists' happiness: positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. Two surveys were conducted to test the direct and indirect influence of tourists' happiness on revisit intention and the moderating role of tourists' health consciousness. The results show that tourists' happiness promotes memorable tourism experience and place attachment, in turn stimulating revisit intention. The results also support health consciousness as a significant moderator between happiness, place attachment, and revisit intention. The findings enrich theoretical understanding of tourists’ happiness and provide marketing and management advice for TCM cultural tourism destinations.     

Guides' handling of multiple roles in interactions with tourists: The prism of impression management

Tour guides undertake multiple roles and may face role conflicts when interacting with tourists. A framework of impression management based on dramaturgical theory provides an insight into the inner mechanisms behind how tour guides deal with multiple role dilemmas. This situation is examined in interactions between local Chinese tour guides and Chinese group tourists in a walking-tour-shopping context in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Through observations and interviews, we find that the interplay of a moving stage and guides' role-shifting between being a Chinese sibling, a local and a cultural interpreter delivers authoritative and reliable impressions to tourists, and thus conceal their conflicting role as a shopping broker. We further refine the inner mechanism, which contributes to existing literature on tour guides' multiple-role practices. Our research also enriches the explanatory power of Goffman's framework by explaining a complex situation with multiple role dilemmas amidst a moving working stage in interactive studies.