Mainland Chinese Visitors’ Perceptions of Macau as a Travel Destination

ABSTRACT

Considering Macau’s close ties with China and its advantageous location, the Macau government should strongly promote the diversification of the city’s core gambling industry to ensure its long-term sustainable growth. As the economy and tourism policies adopted by Mainland China change rapidly, predicting the needs of travelers becomes increasingly difficult. To clearly understand this big market, we segmented a sample of Mainland Chinese visitors traveling to Macau according to their perception of Macau as a travel destination and mapped their socio-demographic profiles as well as their preferences. This study provides an insight into the major preferences and perceptions of Mainland Chinese travelers. The findings can thus help the Macau government and relevant tourism stakeholders better understand their inbound travelers.

Results revealed three major dimensions of Mainland Chinese travelers’ perception toward Macau: ‘culture and attraction,’ ‘value for money and convenience,’ and ‘pleasure.’ Four clusters were also defined: ‘relaxation seekers,’ ‘accessibility and convenience seekers,’ ‘value seekers,’ and ‘gambling and entertainment seekers.’ The results reflected that Macau is not only associated with casinos and gambling, but also other components such as the city’s culture and convenience which can contribute to its sustainability.

摘要

澳门与内地关系密切且地理位置优越, 澳门政府应大力推动澳门核心博彩业的多元化发展, 确保长期可持续增长。随着内地经济与旅游政策的快速转变, 预测游客之需求变得越来越困难。为了清楚了解这个大市场, 我们对前往澳门旅游的内地旅客进行了抽样调查, 根据他们对澳门作为旅游目的地之看法, 并且绘制了他们的社会人口状况与个人偏好图。本研究使我们可以了解内地游客的主要偏好与看法, 因此研究结果有助于澳门政府及旅游利益攸关者更好地了解入境游客。研究结果显示, 内地游客对澳门的看法分为三个方面:‘文化与旅游景点’, ‘物有所值和方便’和‘愉悦’。四个集群亦被定义为:‘放松自己旅游者’, ‘交通便利旅游者’, ‘物有所值旅游者’和‘博彩和娱乐旅游者’。研究结果反映, 澳门不仅与赌场和博彩有关, 亦与澳门的文化和便利等其它组成部分紧密相关, 这些因素有助于澳门的可持续发展。

KEYWORDS:

• Macau
• Mainland Chinese travelers
• market segmentation
• travelers’ perception
• destination image

关键词:

• 澳门
• 内地游客
• 市场细分
• 游客感知
• 目的地形象

Acknowledgments

The data file was received from the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming, University of Macau.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Loretta Pang

Loretta Pang is Instructor in School of Hotel & Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China. Her research interests are human resources management, blended learning, creativity and tourist behavior (E-mail: [email protected]).

Rob Law

Rob Law is Professor in School of Hotel & Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China. His research interests are technology applications to tourism and information management (E-mail: [email protected]).

Davis Ka Chio Fong

Davis Ka Chio Fong is Professor in Faculty of Business Administration at University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. His research interests are social and economic impacts of gambling, responsible gambling, and tourist behavior (E-mail: [email protected]).