Shopping Tourism Hong Kong
A study of shopping tourism: Is Hong Kong a good place for shopping?
Background to the research Issue 2
Discussion of relevant literature
Proposed research Methodology and analysis
Sampling Method
Demographic Characteristics
Analysis of the results from Survey
Survey Question 7- Who are the main companions for visit in HongKong?
Background to the research Issue
Within the past three decades shopping tourism at international level has been increased hugely the reason being advancement in the airline industry as well as lessening in traveling expenses. This is evident from the latest data which shows that in 2008 international arrival was 922 million which is an increase of 4.47% since in 2005 it was 800 million (UNWTO, 2009, p.4). Although world economy faced economic recession in 2008, yet it did not impact on the tourism rate which increased by 1.99% in the period of 2007-2008.
Tourism now has become an industry which has a significant role in the economic growth of any country. Visitors coming to a destination spend money on shopping, hotel accommodation, eatables, and transportation as well as on entertainment and thus contribute to increase the gross domestic product (GDP). Tourism also helps to create employment and provide socio-economic development. The data show that during the year 2008 almost 80 countries were able to earn 1 billion USD from international tourism (UNWTO, 2009). Figure 1 represents the international arrivals during the period 1999-2008
Shopping and tourism are among the most important cross-border activities for generating positive social and economic changes. Shopping and tourism are interconnected in many ways, and the relationship between the two phenomena is rather complex. Although shopping tourism is a phenomenon well-known in common parlance, constructing a scientific framework and definition for it is rather complicated. Shopping is one of the most common and enjoyable leisure activities among tourists, and in many cases it represents a basic motivation for travel. The relationship between shopping and tourism can be divided into two categories. The first one, where the primary purpose of the tourist trip is to shop, is termed 'shopping tourism'. The second is called 'tourist shopping', where shopping is done as a secondary activity during a trip which might be motivated primarily by something else (e.g.sun bathing, ecotourism, cultural tourism, etc.) (Dallen, 2005)
The current research paper is aimed at exploring the concept of shopping tourism. Particularly the researcher will focus on exploring the scope of Hong Kong for being a shopping place for tourists. For this purpose the researcher conducted survey with 70 tourists at Honk Kong to know whether HongKong is a good place for shopping or not.
Figure 1-International tourist arrivals
Objectives of the Study
Previously many research studies have been conducted on the concept of shopping tourism involving different destinations. (Ko, 1999; Lehto, Cai, O'Leary, & Huan, 2004; Mok & Iverson, 2000; Moscardo, 2004; Oh, Cheng, Lehto, & O'Leary, 2004). These studies have focused on the shopping behaviors, consumer satisfaction, products and services' quality in the tourism destinations. Some have focused on the prices of services and goods in different tourist destinations. Shopping preferences and choices of tourists as well destinations choices related to shopping have also been discovered. However no research study has focused on exploring Hong Kong as a shopping place.
Research Question
In the current study, the author addressed main question of;
Is Hong Kong a good place for shopping?
To address this research question the researcher focused on the main variables like price, quality and variety and thus following three sub-questions were focused and addressed;
1. Are tourists satisfied with the quality and prices of the goods at Hong Kong?
2. Are prices important for tourists?
3. Are tourists satisfied with the variety of goods at Shopping Mall in Hong Kong?
4. Is environment of shopping malls satisfactory?
Discussion of relevant literature
Tourism may be defined as, "The sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the interaction of tourists, business suppliers, host governments and host communities in the process of attracting and hosting these tourists and other visitors," (McCabe, 2009, p. 4).
A unique type of shopping tourism that has received considerable attention is shopping in border areas -- also known as cross-border shopping. This consumer activity takes place near international boundaries. Economic, legal and social differences on opposite sides of an international border can be the major driving force for cross-border travel. As a result, activities such as gambling, prostitution, drinking, and shopping become important tourist activities in border regions. Cross-border shopping, where people travel beyond the boundaries of their own nation specifically to shop in a neighboring country, is common in all parts of the world (Timothy and Richard Butler, 1995)
Honk Kong is a significant destination for shopping tourism. Data show that tourism demand international arrived to Hong Kong has gradually increased from 1985 to-date. During this period there seems an increasing trend in the number of visitors with growth rate of 9.1% per year. While during 2010 Hong Kong received 36 million record visitors that are 21.8% higher than the visitors in 2009. (Tourism.gov, 2010)
The main markets of Hong Kong tourism are Mainland China, Australia, United Kingdom, United States, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. According to 2009 statistics China had 56.5% share in the total tourism expenditure (HKTB, 2009)
Research studies show that shopping is the main inbound spending category in tourism. Hong Kong Tourism data of 2008 show that tourists spend 53.96 billion on shopping out of the total HKD tourist expenditure of 94.21 billion which is 57.3%. While the contribution from tourists belonging to Mainland China spend most on shopping at Hong Kong and contribute almost HKD 4,056 per capita. While tourists from UK and U.S. spend on shopping the least which is HKD 1,347 and 1,257 respectively. Similarly Japanese tourists spend HKD 1,622 per capita and other four main markets are found to be spending between HKD 2,000 and HKD 3,000 per capita on shopping at Hong Kong (Chengaung, 2010)
Proposed research Methodology and analysis
Doing research in shopping is rather difficult, since the relevant shopping data are not routinely collected or compiled in official records. Consequently, our research was based on a standard survey questionnaire, comprising 16 questions. The survey was carried out at Hong Kong and questionnaires were get filled by the visitors at different main shopping malls of Hong Kong. The visitors were targeted, because it was the purpose of the study to get direct information from the tourists and their shopping perceptions and behaviors towards Hong Kong shops and products, answers were based on the subjective opinion of respondents. Altogether 70 questionnaires were fully completed
Data Collection
Many researchers have considered qualitative research methods to measure and forecast tourism demand of a destination. These types of method are used to obtain an understanding of human behavior as well as factors behind these behaviors. The researcher used survey questionnaire as an instrument to collect data for the study. The survey questionnaire was developed based on the review of the previous literature. The survey aimed to sample both traditional and modern retail environments. The questionnaire was developed in English as the majority of tourists are familiar with the English.
The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions. Survey question 1-4 were aimed at exploring the demographic characteristics of the survey population. In these questions the tourists were asked to inform about their occupation, gender, age and nationality. Survey question five and six asked about their stay and visit to Hong Kong. Survey question seven asked about the companions during visit i.e., family, spouse, friend. Survey questions 8, 9 and 10 asked the tourists about their income, the amount they want to spend on shopping and the products they want to buy at Hong Kong.
Survey questions 11, 12 and 13 were aimed at exploring tourists' perceptions about the environment, quality of service and environment at Hong Kong shopping malls. The last three questions asked the participants of the survey to express level of their satisfaction about their shopping experience at Hong Kong and also whether they desire to come to HK again for shopping. The purpose of including these questions was to know whether Hong Kong is a good place for shopping tourism.
Sample Size
The target population of the research was tourists who had come to visit Hong Kong and do shopping during 6 October to 20 October. A total of 3 shopping markets located at Hong Kong were selected for conducting survey. A total of 70 tourists were selected to participate in the survey. The rule to choose this sample size was taken from Stevenson (1999) who suggested that for every variable there is a need to choose 15 cases. Through this study the researcher measured four variables. These were the 1) quality of goods at HK 2) the transportation at HK 3) Shopping choices of tourists and 4) perception of Prices
Scholars in the field have also suggested that researcher should choose the sample size beyond this minimum limit (Hair, 2006). Bases on Stevens suggestions the sample size would be 60 and whereas the author decided to conduct research with 70 participants based on Stevenson suggestion.
Sampling Method
The researcher adopted convenient method of sampling. As the target of the research was tourists visiting Hong Kong the survey was conducted at two main shopping malls at Hong Kong. The avenue of the research was duty free shops at Tsim Sha Tsui which is a famous shopping district in HK. Yet at shopping malls there is less time for tourists therefore tourists were approached at their hotels and researcher himself distributed the survey and afterwards collected from the hotel management who were requested to cooperate in the research.
Results and discussion
The results of the study were manually entered and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Following is a detailed discussion of the results of the study.
Demographic Characteristics
The author included four questions in the questionnaire including the nationality, gender, age and occupation. Data tables 1-4 represent the division of the survey participants according to their demographic characteristics. The results show that majority of the participants were more than 50 years old; American and Canadian, business men and belong to male sex.
Table 1-Division of tourists based on their nationality
Australia
20
United Kingdom
17
United States
18
Japan
10
Singapore
5
Table 2-Division of tourists based on their occupation
Business Men
20
Retired Army Personal
8
Engineers
7
Educationists
10
Retired Government Officers
13
Travel Writers
12
Total
70
The result are expected as mostly retired persons and above 50 are found to be going on tour and visiting different places as they have time as well as money to spend in travel and tourism. Nationality results are also significant whish show that majority of tourists belonged to European countries and there were less number of tourists from Asia and Africa
The results from the occupation are also significant as we come to know that majority of the respondents of the study were business men followed by retired government personnel.
Table 3-Division of tourists based on their Age
20-29years
20
30-39 years
17
40-49years
18
over 50 years
10
Total
70
Table 4-Division of tourists based on their gender
Male
49
Female
21
Total
70
Analysis of the results from Survey Question 5
Survey question 5 asked the participants whether it was their first visit in Hong Kong to which majority of the participant's replies as 'yes'. This shows that usually people do not want to visit a destination several times and there is tendency to explore new destinations every time.
Table 5-Is this your fist time travel in Hong Kong
Yes
50
No
20
Total
70
Survey Question 6
Survey question 6 asked the participants about the period of their stay at Hong Kong. The results given in Table-6 show that majority of the tourists were coming to stay for a period longer than a week. The results show that 24 out of 70 stated their stay was more than 8 days. While there were 12 who wanted to stay for 6-8 days and 13 were arrived to stay less than 5 days.
Table 6-How long do you plan to stay in HongKong?
1-2days
5
3-5days
8
6-8days
12
Above 8 days
45
Total
70
Survey Question 7- Who are the main companions for visit in Hong Kong?
Survey question 7 asked the tourists to point out their companions for visit in HK. The purpose of including this question was to explore the preferences of tourists for companionship while going for shopping abroad. The results show that majority of people prefer family or want to come alone. There were only 4 who had come with colleagues. (Table-7)
Table 7-Main Companion for visit
30
Family Member
35
Colleague
4
Classmate
0
Other
1
Total
Survey Question 8
Survey question 8 asked the participants about their personal monthly income. The reason behind including this question was to explore the trend of shopping abroad with different level of monthly income. The results given at Table-8 reveal that majority of the tourists had a monthly income of more than 20000 (27%) followed by 80-12000 (21%). There were also 17% having monthly income between 5000-8000 and only 7% with monthly income below 5000.
The results are significant and show that mostly individual with higher income level tend to go abroad for shopping.
Table 8- Monthly Personal Income: (HKG)
Below 5000
5
7%
5000-8000
12
17%
8000-12000
15
21%
12000-15000
9
13%
15000-20000
9
13%
Above 20000
20
29%
Total
70
Survey Question 9
Survey question 9 asked the participants about their choices of shopping... The results are varied against this question and are not significant. The Table-9 show mostly tourists buy shoes or clothes while the number of people who buy cosmetics, electric goods and other accessories are also significant
Table 9-How much do you plan to spend per shopping in Hong Kong?(HKG)
Clothes
15
Shoes
22
Cosmetic
13
Electronic products
10
Accessories
10
Total
70
Survey Question 10
Survey question 10 asked the participants about their intention to spend on shopping. The reason behind including this question was to explore the amount of money tourist usually tend to spend on shopping abroad. The results given at Table-10 reveal that tourists were willing to spend an amount between 1000-7000. Out of these which majority (27) stated that they will spend 2000-4000 on shopping?
Table 10-How much do you plan to spend per shopping in HongKong? (HKG)
20
2000-4000
27
5000-7000
23
8000-10000
0
Above 10000
0
Total
70
Survey Question 11
Survey question 11 asked the tourist whether the quality of service is important for them. The results of the study show that majority of tourist gave importance to the service quality of shopping malls. It is evident from the table 11 which show that 70% described that service quality of a shopping mall at HK is important for them
Table 11-Is it important to you for the shopping malls services quality?
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