Chinese Tourism to the United States: The Role of Perceived Cultural Similarity

ABSTRACT

China is the largest outbound tourism market in the world, and the United States is the most popular non-Asian destination. Research reveals an influence of country-level cultural differences on tourist behaviors but offers little insight into how individual-level perceptions of cultural differences might influence tourist travel intentions. This study uses data from potential Chinese tourists and finds that their perceptions of cultural similarity with the American culture have a direct positive impact on their travel intentions, as well as an indirect influence via perceived cultural travel risk; however, this influence is moderated by tourist personality, in particular, extraversion and neuroticism.

摘要

中国拥有着世界上最大的出境游市场, 而美国是最受中国游客欢迎的非亚洲地区目的地。过往的研究揭示了中美国家层面的文化差异对游客行为的影响, 但没有探讨个体层面的文化差异感知是如何影响中国游客赴美旅行的意向的。通过收集并分析中国潜在出境游游客的相关数据, 本文发现他们所感知到的美国文化相似性直接地加强了其赴美旅行的意愿, 或者间接地通过减弱他们对文化方面旅行风险的感知而增强这一意愿;但这些影响会受到游客性格的调节, 特别是外向性和情绪不稳定性。

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese outbound tourism
• cultural similarity
• perceived cultural travel risk
• tourist personality
• travel intention
• moderated mediation model

关键词:

• 中国出境游
• 文化相似性
• 文化方面的旅行风险感知
• 游客性格
• 旅游意愿
• 调节中介模型

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yiwei Li

Yiwei Li is Ph.D. candidate in The Hotel School of SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. His research interest mainly resides in consumer behavior in service industry, particularly consumer choice behaviors in experiential product consumption (E-mail: [email protected]).

Rob Kwortnik Jr

Rob Kwortnik is Associate Professor of Services Marketing in The Hotel School of SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. His research focuses on consumer behavior in service contexts, with special attention to service experience management (E-mail: [email protected]).