The moderating effect of nationality on crowding perception, its antecedents, and coping behaviours: A study of an urban heritage site in Taiwan

Abstract

Due to the significant increase in international tourism arrivals, academic attention that addresses the heterogeneity among nationals with respect to the congestion impact at attraction sites is called for. This study evaluates the moderating effect of nationality on crowding perception, its antecedents, and coping behaviours in order to identify the sensitivity of user groups towards crowding issues. A Taiwanese urban historical site was selected as a case study to assess the differences among domestic Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, and foreign visitors in response to an increase in use pressure. Results supported the moderating effect of nationality on all crowding relationships, and indicated that Taiwanese and foreign visitors were more crowd intolerant and had a higher tendency to engage in coping behaviours than those from mainland China. Good crowding perception, social norms for acceptable behaviours, travel format, and bilateral sociopolitical relationships are suggested as explanations for user differences.

Keywords:

• crowding perception
• coping behaviours
• nationality
• moderator
• Taiwan

Notes

1. The decision to categorize visitors into these segments, specifically to treat visitors from Hong Kong as separate from mainland China, was based on previous similar treatment. A study by Loi and Pearce (2015) indicated that Hong Kong visitors were significantly more sensitive to offensive behaviours than mainland Chinese visitors. While awareness of others’ offensive behaviours is a key determinant for “crowding perception” and “coping behaviour”, this intrinsic difference in travel attitude among Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese supports a separate treatment in this study. Additionally, two international social value classification systems – the Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (Gupta et al., 2002; House et al., 2004) and the World Values Survey (The World Values Survey Association, 2014) – treat Hong Kong separate from mainland China.

2. Our analysis indicated that Hong Kong visitors were significantly different from mainland Chinese visitors in terms of two key variables: “crowding perception” and “coping behaviour tendency”. This finding is consistent with the results reported by Loi and Pearce (2015). In addition, Hong Kong residents have a similar level of crowding perception as foreigners, thus lending support for our excluding Hong Kong visitors from the mainland Chinese visitor group and instead including them with the foreign group.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support from the Taiwan National Science Council under NSC 101-2410-H-390-030 is gratefully acknowledged.