A cross-cultural comparison of island vacation experience: empirical evidence from the Maldives

ABSTRACT

This study compares the characteristics of Chinese and Western island vacation experience. Social network analysis was performed with 30 Chinese travel notes and 30 English travel notes, respectively. The results include: (1) The density and centralization of the Chinese island vacation experience network are lower than those of their Western counterparts; (2) Natural resources, tourism services, and recreational activities are the key dimensions of Chinese and Western island vacation experience, and seven common core experience elements exist; (3) The combination of “seascape-wild animals and plants-people” is preferred by both Chinese and Western tourists. Differences, however, exist between the two groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism experience
• island tourism
• cross-cultural comparison
• Maldives
• social network analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).