Experiences and value perceptions of an ecotourism trip – an empirical study of outbound Chinese tourists

ABSTRACT

Ecotourism is a fast-growing tourism sector, but the value of ecotourism trips from tourists’ perspective has seldom been studied, which led to the current study that examined outbound Chinese tourists’ value perceptions of ecotourism trips. Data were collected from Chinese tourists on bus tours to a well-known Australian ecotourism site over an one-year period. The study suggested tourists’ experiences impacted on perceived ecotour value in a number of ways. In particular, all experience dimensions influenced one or more of the five value dimensions examined, while entertainment, relating, and education experiences influenced each of the five value dimensions. The study offers important implications for both ecotourism researchers and operators attempting to understand and manage the key experiential offerings that could help maximise value to international tourists.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecotour
• Ecotourism
• experience
• perceived value
• international tourists
• Chinese tourists
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the BHP Billiton-UWA Business School Research Development Award.

Notes on contributors

Ting (Tina) Li

Ting Li is a final year Ph.D. candidate in marketing at the University of Western Australia. She had a Bachelor’s degree in management and a Master’s degree in linguistics and translation. Her PhD project investigates Chinese tourists’ tourism experiences, perceived value and behaviour in both inbound and outbound settings. She has published a number of conference proceedings and currently developing manuscripts for journal publications.

Fang Liu

Fang Liu (Ph.D. in Marketing) is an Associate Professor in Marketing at the Business School of the University of Western Australia (UWA). Dr. Liu’s research, teaching and consulting areas centre around consumer/tourist experience, advertising, marketing communication, branding, consumer psychology, international trade, product/service innovation and development, and cross-cultural consumer behaviour. She has a wide range of publications, including dozens of refereed journal articles and book chapters.

Geoffrey N. Soutar

Geoffrey N. Soutar is Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA). An economic graduated from UWA Dr Soutar undertook doctoral training at Cornell University before returning to teach at the UWA from 1973–1986. He was Foundation Professor of Management at Curtin University of Technology from 1986 to 1994 and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Public Management at Edith Cowan University from 1994 until 1999. He was also Director of the Graduate School of Management at UWA from 2000 until 2007 and Head of the Marketing Discipline Group at UWA from 2008 to 2016. Prof. Soutar has been a consultant to a large number of private and public sector organisations in Australia and internationally and has been active in research across a wide area, publishing more than 200 research papers in journals and in book chapters, as well as a number of research monographs, across a wide range of management and marketing areas and presenting more than 300 papers at seminars and conferences. His present research interests include cross-cultural decision-making, new product and service development and the marketing of services, especially educational and tourism services. He has a particular interest in service quality and its impact on organisational success, from which evolved a long-term study of consumption value and its impact on people's willingness to buy and their subsequent satisfaction or dissatisfaction.