انگیزش های سفر و مسافت سفر با پیشبرد زمانی : یک مطالعه موردی از لذت بردن مسافران هنگ کنگ

Although previous studies have examined different factors that affect travel demand and destination choice, tourism research has not investigated changes in such factors over time. This paper presents the findings of a study that examines the robustness of motivations and travel distance over time based on the 10 most popular overseas destinations for pleasure travel and utilizing data collected in an annual survey of Hong Kong residents from 2001 to 2010. The empirical findings indicated that for in most destinations, motivations to travel to the destinations remained unchanged over time. Similarly, results found participants did not necessarily travel further as time progressed. In addition, the study found that independent travel is an increasingly popular mode of travel.

Hong Kong is one of the most popular travel destinations in the Asia-Pacific region (Qu, Li, & Chu, 2000). At the same time, the city is also one of the largest tourist-generating markets in this region, after Japan, Taiwan, and Australia (Zhang, Qu, & Tang, 2004). The number of Hong Kong outbound travelers by air and sea increased from 13 million in 2004 to 15 million in 2010 (Hong Kong Tourism Board [HKTB], 2011). Moreover, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Hong Kong increased from US$26,092 in 2005 to US$31,758 in 2010, and was the fourth highest in the Asia-Pacific region that year after Australia, Japan, and Singapore (World Bank, 2012). Given this large tourism market, along with a combined annual disposable income of US$205,725 million across the Hong Kong population (Euromonitor International, 2012), the travel demands of Hong Kong residents should be of great interest to destination marketing organizations (DMOs) worldwide. A number of studies have examined the factors influencing travel demand and destination choice. In relation to choice, researchers have proposed that traveler choices are influenced by different factors related to travel motivations (Crompton, 1979, Yoon and Uysal, 2005, Kim, 2008, Sangpikul, 2008 and Yoon and Uysal, 2005). In general, people travel to particular destinations because these destinations satisfy their desire for such things as escape, relaxation, and spending time with family members and friends. Additionally, the inherent desire to travel is further stimulated and reinforced by destination attributes such as beaches, cultural attractions, shopping, and other attractions. Different motivational attributes result in different destination choices. Other studies have focused on the relationship between travel demand and distance, and have identified a lognormal pattern of travel demand (Greer & Wall, 1979), where demand declines exponentially once travelers notice a high demand. Furthermore, a number of studies have investigated modes of travel with respect to various socio-demographic and travel characteristics (Quiroga, 1990, Mok and Armstrong, 1995 and Hyde and Lawson, 2003). Travel demand to a destination should be maintained at a certain level as part of sustainable tourism and one way to achieve this is by creating and maintaining destination loyalty. Studies on destination loyalty have examined the factors that influence the “repeat” destination choices of travelers, including monetary (e.g. accommodation, air tickets) and non-monetary costs (e.g. time and effort), past visit history, different cultural experiences, safety, considerations and transport convenience (Oppermann, 2000, Chen and Gursoy, 2001, Niininen et al., 2004, Yoon and Uysal, 2005, Alegre and Juaneda, 2006 and Yoon and Uysal, 2005). When tourists travel to familiar destination, they spend less time and effort organizing their travel than they would travel if they were traveling to an unfamiliar destination. Similarly, travelers who visit familiar destinations have a better understanding of price and quality than those traveling to unfamiliar ones. The objectives of this study are three-fold. First, the study argues that destination loyalty (or repeated destination choice) needs to be examined along with travel motivations. It is because travel motivation is a precedent to the establishment of destination loyalty. In order for a destination to be selected at the first place, the destination should satisfy travelers' motivation. This study makes an attempt to examine how distinguishable travel motivations to a destination will be from other destinations. As such, one of the study's objectives is to examine the robustness of travel motivations over time. While travel motivations may change with travel experience (Pearce & Caltabiano, 1983), little is known about the robustness of travel motivations over time. Also, this study argues that repeated destination choice needs to be examined over increasing travel distance. Given that technological advancement and infrastructure development have reduced travel costs (Khadaroo & Seetanah, 2008), travelers might travel further or cheaper. Thus, the second objective of this study is to examine the changes in distance over time. Although previous studies have well documented motivations to travel and destination choices, limited research has examined these factors (i.e. motivation and distance) from a temporal perspective. Such a perspective, usually expressed in terms of trends, is essential for identifying the long-term series of movements hidden in the raw data (Gonzalez & Moral, 1996). Hence, the third objective of this study is to explore travel characteristics of Hong Kong pleasure travelers. It includes travel mode and travel trend among the 10 most popular destinations. This study analyzes data from a series of annual surveys of travel demand for international pleasure travel among Hong Kong residents. The purpose is to examine whether travel motivations and distance vary over temporal advance using the 10 most popular international destinations based on aggregated data. Having introduced the background of this research, the following section reviews the published literature on issues relating to outbound travel. After that, there is a section to discuss the data collection and analysis. The final section summarizes the findings and offers suggestions for future research. This study contributes to the literature on travel and tourism by addressing the aforementioned gap in the research on destination choice and travel demand by exploring the destination choices of Hong Kong outbound travelers from a temporal perspective. Furthermore, it aims to investigate variations in motivation among travelers to different destinations. It thus provides new insights into the international travel trends of Hong Kong residents, which in turn could help travel industry managers and DMOs worldwide to target Hong Kong pleasure travelers, to understand changes in travel demand for international destinations, and to establish appropriate operations and marketing strategies for Hong Kong travelers.

This study examined the 10 most popular international destinations from Hong Kong based on an analysis of data collected over the decade from 2001 to 2010. In addition, trends in travel demand for a destination, modes of travel, and variance in travel motivations and distance were identified. Since limited research has been conducted on outbound travelers over a period of multiple several years, this study makes a meaningful contribution to the literature by empirically examining the popularity of international destinations. Although this study is limited in scope in terms of sampling, the findings suggest a number of insights for DMOs in the destination. Among the managerial implications of this study are that DMOs should not take current market demand for granted. While push motivations were found to be almost constant over time, motivation did not adequately explain changes in demand. Destinations with decreasing demand should therefore change their marketing strategies to attract more travelers. This study also suggests that push motivations are almost identical across destinations, and their perceived relative importance remains almost constant over time. Thus, destinations with decreasing changes demand should develop new pull factors that travelers would prefer and effectively communicate these to potential visitors. Thailand currently promotes its cultural and natural attractions, along with friendly services, through its online channel (Amazing Thailand, 2010). Given that Hong Kong travelers to Bangkok identified discovery of new places as less important than relaxation, Thai DMOs may need to change their marketing strategy for the Hong Kong market by focusing on rest and relaxation as motivations for traveling to Thailand. Japan, on the other hand, should promote getting away from the daily routine and discovering new places as motivations for Hong Kong travelers. While destinations in Japan are distant and travel to Japan is expensive, this study observed an increasing demand for Japan as a destination. Highlights on the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) website (JNTO, 2010) project mainly natural and cultural attractions, which would appear to suit the desires of Hong Kong travelers. Similarly, Korean DMOs may want to pay more attention to safety and convenience factors. Despite the increasing trend towards independent travel, more increasing numbers of Hong Kong travelers joined package tours on their trips to Seoul. Although this study did not identify the reasons travelers preferred package tours, findings from prior studies suggest that Korea does not have the same advantages as its counterparts of Japan and Thailand (Chon, 1991, Qu and Brown, 2001 and Kim and Morrison, 2005). Thus, DMOs in Korea may need to prepare their destinations so that Hong Kong travelers feel more comfortable traveling independently. Since language barriers are a major social factor preventing travelers from visiting certain destinations (Beerli & Martin, 2004), Korean DMOs could prepare English-or Chinese-medium signage to cater to the needs of Hong Kong travelers. As more and more travelers organize trips to Singapore independently, Singaporean DMOs may need to prepare for the increasing trend toward independent travel. This may include setting up more tourist centers and providing information about destination attractions on leaflets and brochures. Because independent travelers enjoy the freedom of their itinerary, they tend to search for more information as they approach their destination. More information prepared in a medium that Hong Kong travelers prefer could be distributed near places of accommodation.