This paper is a research report on a study conducted concerning Urban tourism in Hong Kong. The research was conducted between August 20th and September 1st 2017 in Hong Kong. The study mainly targets major tourist destinations in the city as well as Hotels that are popular with tourist in Hong Kong. The aim of this research project was to establish the current trends in urban tourism in specific reference to Hong Kong. The study is aims at establishing the spending patterns of tourists, their preferred tourist destinations, number of times visited, their level of satisfaction worthy services offered and their shopping experiences in Hong Kong. The paper also discusses the background of the research subject in order to give a brief overview on why the subject was chosen for research. Various theories on urban tourism are also discussed and compared in order to draw knowledge and understand the arguments of different authors regarding urban tourism.
The report also presents the research methodology used in this study. The methodology is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. This is because, the data collected in this research project is both numerical and descriptive, and therefore using a research design that is not flexible would present many challenges during the study. The study mainly depended on primary data collected from respondents through interviews and questionnaires. The decision to rely on primary data is that it enables the researchers to get first hand information concerning the subject under investigation and hence giving more accuracy and confidence in the final research report. Secondary data sources are also used to back up the primary sources. This helps in identifying gaps in research subject as well as gaining more insight on the methodologies used in conducting previous studies. The data collection procedures are outlined.
The data on this research was collected using questionnaires which were given to respondents to fill. Microsoft Excel was the tool used to analyze the data collected backed up with non numerical methods of data analysis. The research presented various findings which are discussed in detail in this report. Most of the respondents indicated that it was not their first time to visit Hong Kong.
From the study also, it was found out that most of the respondents travel pattern was group tour. These findings are made from the interpretation of data on the spreadsheet. The final part of the report contains recommendation and a conclusion made concerning the entire report.
Urban tourism is a term that is used to describe many tourism activities in a city which is of major tourist attraction and a place of great public interest. Urban tourism is an old form of tourism with many people making trips in the city in groups. Urban tourism wasn’t a subject of research until late 80s and till 90s was seen as very popular in those years(Matias, Nijkampand Sarmento, 2009). After extensive research was done, tourism within cities was associated with growth and technological development. Tourism is associated with development of roads, railway as well as air transport. Tourism encouraged authorities to build better infrastructure since it made it easier tourists to travel hence attracting tourists to that city. More cities began promoting urban tourism because of this (Rogerson & visser,2007).
Urban tourism thrives because cities can offer a wide variety of products to people who are traveling hence offering them a unique shopping experience. These products could be material or immaterial. Some of these products may be artifacts, electronic consumer goods, foodstuffs and many more. The non material products include buying services by visiting paces such as museums, cultural centers, religious and entertainment areas (Yang, 2017). Sports areas and tourism is also a form of urban tourism. Many cities have built sports complexes and entertainment arenas in order to attract international and domestic tourists.
There are a number of factors that influence the growth of urban tourism. Such factors include; number and extent of diversity of attractions, closeness to other attractions, level of transport in the city, quality, and size of the cities accommodation facilities, as well as how effective marketing and promotion activities are in the city. Urban tourism has many positive effects on the urban areas being visited. It is a major creator of employment, both direct and indirect. Growth in urban tourism contributes to more people being employed in the transport sector, accommodation and hospitality industry as well as shopping centers where tourists visit during their stay in the city. In addition to this, urban tourism helps to increase money circulation in the city and hence improving people’s disposable income. This increases their buying power and hence promoting economic growth in the city as well as standards of living.
Urban tourism has been a very crucial part of the economy of Hong Kong since the economy of the city stopped depending on manufacturing to become a service dependent city. Since the turn of the century, Hong Kong has experienced an upsurge of tourists from mainland China as a result of the introduction of Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) in 2003.
By the year 2011, the total expenditure on tourism as a result of foreign tourists visiting the company reached HK$7,333 per capita (Newton, 2008). The Hong Kong tourism board estimates that the overall visits from the foreign countries were 36 million in the year 2010 (Maimunah, 2013). This was a 21% increase from the previous year’s total number of visits. Of the total number of visits in the year 2010, approximately 22.5 million were from mainland China. 8.2 million were from the neighboring countries in South East Asia and the remaining 4.8 million were long-haul arrivals(Hong Kong Heritage Tourism Expo. 2012). In the month of July 2011, around 3.8 million visitors arrived in Hong Kong. This is about half of Hong Kong’s` total population and this was a record of tourist numbers in a single month (Muangasame,and Khunon, 2013).
There has been a very strong growth in the number of tourists from mainland China and other parts of the world and this has instigated a very sharp growth in the economy of Hong Kong. In the year 2016 statistics from the Hong Kong tourism board indicates that among the long-haul visitors, Europe was the leading market followed by Africa and the Middle East took the lead respectively.
The growth in Hong Kong’s` urban tourism has been mainly due to the aggressive efforts by the Hong Kong tourist board marketing efforts. The board has collaborated with other relevant government authorities to make Hong Kong an essential multi-destination tourism hub. By the year 2016, Hong Kong had approximately 970 hotels and guest house for hotels. The city had a room capacity of 82,764 rooms. The average room occupancy rate for the year was approximately 87%. This was a 1.1% growth from the previous year’s room occupancy rate. During the year 2016, more than 67.3% of all the visitors stayed for one night or longer which means that the hospitality and hotel industry are benefiting a lot from the tourism boom.
Shopping is a very popular social activity in Hong Kong city. The sale of basic items in the city does not attract any levy from the government. This encourages tourists to shop in the city. It is reported that shoppers spend approximately US$4.5 billion in a month in Hong Kong shop (Maciocco & serreli, 2009).The closeness of Hong Kong city to China which is a manufacturing hub makes products very cheap. The manufacturing costs in China are cheap and this makes it possible for traders in Hong Kong t import products and sell them at a cheap price to tourists(Ng, 2013).. Shopping by tourist is also encouraged by the fact that the official languages in this region are Cantonese and English. This makes communication between the local traders and the foreign tourists make shopping easy. The popular items being traded in the city include jewelry, Jade, Gold. The most popular jewelry shops in the city are Chow Seng Seng and Luk Fook. A wide variety of cuisines are available with traditional Chinese cuisine such as Shanghainese, Hanainanese, and Mong Kok.
The culture of Hong Kong can be defined as a foundation that was started with the Lingnan`s Cantonese culture and some influence from the Chinese culture (Adamietz, 2012). After the British Colonization began in the 20th century, the culture of Hong Kong also got influenced by the British culture.
There are many traditional tourist attractions and art centers in Hong Kong. Some of the most common museums in Hong Kong include Airport Core Programs Exhibition Center, Art Museum of Chinese University of Hong Kong and the city gallery.
The current challenges for urban tourism research are to re-evaluate most of the assumptions, models, and frameworks that have been used in the previous studies. The re-evaluation of models and assumptions is important due to the changing treads in urban tourism globally. A lot of research work has been conducted about urban tourism in Hong Kong. This research addresses a range of issues of in urban tourism. These issues include hospitality and accommodation in Hong Kong, arts and culture attractions in Hong Kong, shopping and culture as well as wildlife. Hong Kong has been a major attraction of tourists for many years. This is mainly due to its diverse culture, traditions, art, as well as shopping experience.
Briassoulis & Straaten (2012) found that most of the tourists who visit Hong Kong city are attracted by the cities` culture and art. The city is rich in culture and arts with many museums, performing arts theater s well as martial arts being a major source of attraction for urban tourists(Law, Rong, Vu, Li, G and Lee, 2011).. The cities foods and cuisines make it also a unique destination for both domestic and foreign tourists. According to World tourism organization (2012) , Hong Kong city hotels also attract tourists from both domestic and foreign tourists. The unique foods and services in Hong Kong hotel helps to bring many visitors to the city. Specht (2014), states that the city of Hong Kong offers customers unique shopping experiences. This has helped the city to attract a huge chunk of domestic tourists. This is because the city offers a huge variety of products that are unique and are cheap.
Researches on Hong Kong city urban tourism also indicate that the city’s infrastructure and amenities are a source of attraction for tourists. The good subways in the city as well as the good road network encourage people to visit the city(King, & porananond, 2014). The cities proximity to Mainland China as well as good transport network between China and Hong Kong makes it attractive for tourists to visit the city(Hong Kong Tourism Board, 2014)
This section of the report reviews and examines the extent to which previous researches on urban tourism can help us to in understanding this subject further and in explaining current trends in those subject areas. The current conceptual and theoretical frameworks do not fully explain the changing and evolving trends as well as factors influencing tourism in major cities in the world. Ashworth(2003) in his research observed that there is an aspect of imbalance given that most tourists originate from cities and at the same time are a destination of many tourists. He concluded that the people studying tourism neglected cities while those studying cities neglected tourism. The review of the theories and concepts in urban tourism is done with specific reference to peer reviewed journals and edited books.
One of the theories of urban tourism suggests that there has been low proliferation of themes within the urban tourism domain since 1990s. According to Stanfield (1964), in order to understand the character of urban tourism, it is important to consider the antonym and to account for the relative neglect of the antonym. The antonym in this case is the rural tourism and why this sector has been neglected for centuries. The founding father of urban spatial modeling,Christaller (1966) suggested a spatial model of urban tourism where tourism would become a function of urban periphery and not of urban centers.
The above was progressed through the concept of pleasure periphery. This concept was formulated by Miossec, (1976) and Yokeno,(1968) in this concept, recreational center were divided by travel seasons and their function was to create demand for leisure and not supply of leisure , space and facilities. This theory focused on how the neglect of rural areas had an influence on urban tourism.
Globalization and development of world cities is another concept explaining urban tourism. A lot of literature exists on globalization and tourism in urban areas. The relationship between economic, cultural, and political factors and how they influence urban culture is also discussed in this theory. Hall (1966) was the first to argue this concept. He reasoned that globalization as a process impacts upon medium and small cities and the best sign of realizing globalization on small cities and towns is through the increase in tourism and development of hospitality industry in these areas(Kwan,2012). Urban based knowledge of the economy has transformed into productive activities and this productive activity has brought about development of luxury experiences and services that are world class (Ordo?n?ez & zeyar, 2017). This has helped to promote increase in the number of people visiting urban areas.
Globalization also promotes free trade. Free trade encourages movement of people across boarder in search of trading or business opportunities (Tseand Qiu, 2016). This movement has led to a boom and growth in tourism since people may travel across continents to shop or carry out important business. A good example in this case is Dubai and Hong Kong. A tourist city is characterized by a series of primary attractions and an infrastructure that is can be utilized by tourists.
Another concept explaining urban tourism is that of re-globalization. Short et al.(2000) suggests that there exists a complex relationship between waves of globalization where the ‘local’ is an active agent in influencing globalization processes. He used the term re-globalization because the term globalization has been used to for very many centuries. Re-globalization from a tourism point of view means use of infrastructure and places of attraction in the city(Discover Hong Kong nature. 2007). Leisure economies have also continued to make cities attractive for tourists. These developments were a necessity due to the need to replace the declining manufacturing industries hence the need to grow service industries which were becoming very lucrative at the time (Briassoulis&Straaten, 2012).
Culture and traditions are also viewed as another factor influencing the growth of urban tourism over the years. Tourism is a major avenue for people to experience the differences in cultures and tradition of people from different parts of the world. Nothing offers a better experience than a visit to a city with diverse cultures and traditions. People visit cities in order to experience their unique cuisines, food, social life as well as their architectural designs. The desire to understand one another`s culture has grown over the years due to globalization. Increase in peoples disposable income has also had a bearing on urban tourism. Urban tourism requires a person to spend a substantial amount of money. This is because urban tourism is associated with shopping expeditions and spending time in luxury city hotels.
The purpose of conducting this study is to identify the current trends in urban tourism with Hong Kong being used as the case study for this research. The study seeks to identify the spending patterns of visitors, their shopping experiences, and their motivations for visiting the city.
The aim of this study is to establish the new trends for tourists visiting Hong Kong.
The research also aims at establishing reasons why the visitors are visiting the city.
Establish the shopping experiences of tourists and the major attraction sites
Determining the visiting patterns and the duration of time the visitors stayed in the city.
Investigating the amount of money that visitors spend in a single visit and their spending patterns.
This study was conducted using a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Qualitative research method is mainly used in this study because most of the data collected in this study is numerical. The nature of the study makes it suitable to use quantitative research methods because the data collected can be analyzed and interpreted numerically. The use of only quantitative research method would present a major challenge for the researcher since it would limit the questions asked and even interpretation of some data would be difficult. Due to this reason, it becomes important to apply qualitative research technique in this study (Marais & visser, 2008).
The data for this study was collected using primary methods. The primary data collected was mainly through questionnaires given to respondents visiting the city. There were questionnaires for foreign visitors containing fifteen questions. The questions in these questionnaires focused on obtaining information concerning the interests of tourists, their major attractions as well as their shopping experiences and spending patterns. There was another questionnaire that obtains information from local residents on the social, economic, and environmental effects of tourism. The sample population for the research was selected using simple random sampling. This is where the respondents are chosen randomly from a given population without any considerations being put in place.
Secondary data was also used to conduct this study. Data collected by previous researchers was used in determining and evaluating the patterns and trends in urban tourism done on other cities. The sources of secondary data used in this study include peer reviewed journals, books, thesis and dissertations, as well as trade journals were used to provide information used in this research (Hessler& zimmermann, 2008). The data collected in this research was analyzed using the Microsoft Excel analysis tool. This analysis tool helped in providing a clear understanding of the data collected. This enabled the data to be presented easily in form of tables and graphs for easier understanding.
The focus of this project is to establish the trends in urban tourism with a specific focus on Hong Kong. The study investigates the frequency of the visitors’ trips, the spending patterns of the visitors and their shopping experiences as well as their major attractions in the city.
From the results collected on the study, an analysis can be analyzed to help draw conclusions and make findings from the study. This section contains an in depth analysis of the data collected from the questionnaires that were issued to the respondents. The first question on the questionnaire was whether or not its the first time for the respondent is visiting the city or not. Majority of the respondents responded to the affirmative. Out of the 44 respondents questioned in the study,23 of them indicated that it was the first time they were visiting the city. The remaining 21 respondents indicated that they had visited the city one or more times previously. This result indicates that most of the tourists visiting Hong Kong city are visiting for the first time hence indicating that urban tourism in the city is growing. The fact that 21 of the respondents were visiting for the second time also indicates that the visitors were impressed when they visited the city for the first time.
The second question in the questionnaire addressed the issue of travel pattern that the visitors were planning to use when visiting the city. The options available for the respondents were; group tour, individual leisure tour, business travel, visiting friends and relatives, and the option of indicating other pattern that was not indicated in the options provided. Majority of the respondents indicated that they were visiting in group tours. Only four of the respondents indicated that they were traveling to the city for business purposes. This is an indication that majority of the visitors to the city were traveling to experience the tourist destinations and the food in the city.
From the data, it can be concluded that most of the visitors spend their money on hotels for accommodation and for meals outside the hotels they are booked in. Shopping expenditure by the respondents was also a bit high. Most respondents indicated that they shopped in the city before the end of their trips. The expenditure on trips by the respondents came as number four on the list of options provided.
The tourist destination visited by the visitors include museums, art centers , major hotel in the city, historical monuments as well as entertainment theaters(WANG, 2010). Majority of respondents in the study indicated that they visited more than 5 tourist destinations in the city before they ended their visit. 60% of the respondents in the study indicated that they bought jewelry in the city. Another 30 % of the respondents indicated that they bought art work and the smallest percentage of the visitors bought other items for decoration. The value of money for shopping for many respondents was average for most of the visitors questioned.
The value of hotel services and the hospitality of sales staff in retail shop were above average. This is according to 22 of the 44 respondents questioned. 10 of the respondents indicated that the hospitality was below average. The quality of tourist attractions can be concluded to be high. More than 50% of the respondents indicated that the destinations they visited exceeded their expectations. This therefore shows that the city offers visitors memorable experiences when they visit and they can be convinced to visit the city many more times. Tourist attraction destinations were found to be accessible to many of the respondents. Many of the visitors used road transport and they indicated that the roads were smooth and they were able to access all the areas they visited with ease. Air transport was also convenient for the visitors visiting Hong Kong. The challenges that some visitors experienced during their visits are those of traffic jams at peak hours.
The general comments of most of the respondents had positive comments about their experiences during their visit in the city. There were a few complaints concerning hospitality of hotel staff and presence of language barrier. The other concern expressed by the respondents is about the quality of tourist attractions.
Conclusion
The report has analyzed and interpreted the data collected from the study to help draw conclusion and recommendation. The first section of the report is a brief description of the topic under review with a background of past researches done on the subject. The report also contains a literature review on urban tourism in Hong Kong. The finding and recommendation of previous researches are evaluated and compared to one another so as to give direction on the data interpretations techniques used. The nest section of the report discusses the methodology and the data collection procedures used during the study. Secondary data and primary data from different sources were used to collect data for this study. An in depth analysis of the data collected in done in the last chapter of the report after which conclusions are made.
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