Traveling with Pets: Investigating the Urban, Staycation Tourism Experience

ABSTRACT

Research on pet tourism in the Chinese context deserves more attention as pet ownership continues to rise in urban areas. Although previous studies have explored the motivations and constraints of traveling with pets, research related to tourists’ experiences remain limited. To address this gap, this study investigates tourists’ experiences with pets across all three phases of travel (i.e., pre-travel, on-site, and post-travel). Specifically, this study adopted a criterion sampling technique to recruit pet owners for in-depth interviews to understand the factors that affected their staycation experiences in an urban setting. The findings showed that the lack of information related to pet tourism emerged as an important issue in the pre-travel phase, while transportation and policy inconsistencies were key issues during the on-site travel phase. In the post-travel phase, pet tourists purchased souvenirs related to their pets, and these souvenirs serve as evidence of their travels and a memento of their experience as tourists. Overall, this study contributes by enriching the literature on the travel experiences of staycation pet tourists, and by providing practical recommendations on how practitioners could promote pet tourism in urban settings.

摘要

随着城市地区宠物主人数量的不断增加, 中国宠物旅游的研究应值得更多的关注。虽然之前的研究已经探索了带宠物旅行的动机和限制, 但与游客体验相关的研究仍然有限。为了弥补这一研究空白, 本研究调查了带宠物旅游的游客在旅行的三个阶段的旅游体验 (即旅行前, 旅游中和旅行后) 。具体而言, 本研究采用标准抽样方法招募宠物主人进行深入访谈, 以了解影响他们在城市居家度假体验的影响因子。调查结果表明, 宠物旅游相关信息的缺乏是旅行前阶段的一个重要因素, 而交通和政策的不一致是旅行中阶段的关键因素。在旅行后阶段, 携带宠物的游客购买了与他们的宠物相关的纪念品, 这些纪念品可以作为他们旅行的证据以及他们旅游体验的纪念。总体而言, 本研究丰富了有关城市居家度假中带宠物旅行的旅行体验的文献, 并就相关从业者应如何促进城市宠物旅游提供实用的建议.

KEYWORDS:

• Staycation
• pets
• tourist experience
• destination
• city

关键词:

• 居家度假
• 宠物
• 旅游体验
• 目的地
• 城市

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Veronica Ho Ting Chan

Veronica Ho Ting Chan is Assistant Lecturer at Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education, Hong Kong SAR, China. Her research interests include pet tourism, student development, and project management.

Vincent Wing Sun Tung

Vincent Wing Sun Tung is Associate Professor in School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China. His research interests include tourism experiences, host-guest relations, and destination marketing and management.