Understanding the smartphone usage of Chinese outbound tourists in their shopping practices

ABSTRACT

Chinese outbound tourist shopping was a prominent phenomenon in many destinations worldwide before the COVID-19 pandemic, but smartphone usage in it had rarely been addressed. This study draws upon social practice theory and the theory of affordances to examine how Chinese tourists use smartphones during their shopping process in Australia. Based on a combination of participant observations and semi-structured interviews, the study argues that Chinese outbound tourists use smartphones not only to improve their shopping competences but also to regulate the meaning making of their shopping practices. Further, these links are made through the actualized affordances of smartphones including, among others, looking for products based on stored images, accessing product information in Chinese, and communicating with others at home on shopping for them. This study unravels the entanglement of smartphones, Chinese outbound tourists and their shopping practices, and provides directions for maximizing the value of smartphones in shopping-related tourism management and marketing, especially to the Chinese market.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist shopping
• smartphone
• social practice
• affordance
• Chinese outbound tourism

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Professor Gianna Moscardo, from the College of Business, Law and Governance at James Cook University Australia, for providing insightful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Haipeng Jin

Haipeng Jin, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Humanities at Southeast University, China. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Sociology and Anthropology at Sun Yat-sen University, China. His research interests include tourist shopping, Chinese outbound tourism, and the sociology of tourism.

Wenjie Cai

Wenjie Cai, PhD, is a senior lecturer in tourism and hospitality at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom. His research interests include social inclusion, digital wellbeing, tourist behaviour, Chinese outbound tourism, and backpacker tourism.