Travel Motivations For Outbound Tourism Tourism Essay

According to the research topic which is relate to Thailand and Hong Kong, it is necessary to have prior understanding about the history of these destinations in order to understand its tourism markets. Therefore, the researcher firstly would like to inform readers about the brief background of these two target destinations.

For brief history of Thailand, the Verlag (2009) had described that Thailand is the country which located in South-East Asia that covers the area about 513,115 sq. km with total population about 65 millions. The Thai kingdom which former name was Siam had begun forming in 13th century. The capital city was several movements until the final settlement in Bangkok the current capital of Thailand in 1782 AD. According to the monarchy system the King is the official head of state in Thailand.

For the metropolis, Bangkok the capital city of Thailand covered the area for 1,565 squares kilometer. The location of Bangkok is laid on about 30 km. from the mount of River Chao Praya, the main river of central Thailand. The palaces of the King and government pavilion are also located in Bangkok with the current inhabitant about 11 millions in the city. The city of Bangkok once referred to the Venice of the East regard to the traditional living of Thai people who highly engage with streams and rivers. However, after the end of World War II, the city of Bangkok was turned into the booming industrial city. The new facilities and the roads were established and the wider connection with other nations through out the world has begun.

For economic perspective, the information from trading economics website was declared that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Thailand is weight about 0.43% of world economy. The average GDP. of Thailand is 75.64 billions dollars which reach the highest point for 272.43 billions at the end of the year 2008. Resulted from well develop of infrastructures and free investment regulation, it had made Thailand become one of attractive investment destination in South East Asia. However, overall economic growth has fallen sharply in 2008 and 2009 resulted form the global economic down turn and nation political crisis which eroded the investors’ and consumers’ confidence. The statistic of Thailand GDP was illustrated below:

Figure 3: Thailand Gross Domestic Product

(Source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/GDP.aspx?Symbol=thb)

Furthermore, Verlag (2009) had described that the important industry of Thailand was the agriculture which employed of about 50 percent of total labors force. However, the producing of food stuffs and other manufacturing industries such and vehicles and electronic components are contributes only 43 of GDP. The other source of income is come from the services industry. In addition, Tourism industry had represented the highest portion in services sector by process about 47 percent of GDP creation. It has represented the highly concern in Tourism business of Thai society.

Another main destination in this report is Hong Kong Island which located not far from Thailand. Cawthorne (2008) mentioned that the tourism business also be one of major sources of income in Hong Kong and Hong Kong tourism authority also promote in as Tourism destination to boost up their economy.

Figure 4: Map of Hong Kong

(Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/hk.htm)

Verlag (2009) was explained that Hong Kong is the area situated in the southern part of China. Today it is the Special Administration Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China which covered about 1,014 square miles. The area of Hong Kong are included the Kawloon Peninsula, Lantau Island, New territory and 240 small scatter islands in the South China sea coast. Hong Kong once came under the British rule during the time of colonisation in 1842 and was returned to China on 1 July 1997. Result from long time of foreign contacting, the rapid development of Hong Kong had created the mixture between western and oriental cultures that created the unique theme of destination.

The total inhabitants of Hong Kong today were about seven millions which mainly are Chinese people (see more information about Hong Kong in Appendix A). Velag (2009) had also referred to the economic attributes of Hong Kong as it mainly rely on services industry. The services sector was accounted about 84 percent of Hong Kong GDP. In the other hand, the manufacturing industry had contributed only about 16 percent of total GDP. of Hong Kong. It had stated that the services industry is the major source of national income for Hong Kong. The statistic of Hong Kong GDP. from trading economic website was stated below:

Figure 5: Hong Kong Gross Domestic Product

(Source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/economics/gdp.aspx?symbol=hkd)

According to the figure 5, it had state the increasing trend of Hong Kong GDP. The trading economic statistic was mentioned that Hong Kong GDP was reached up to 215.36 billions dollars in the end of the year 2008 and still show the further increasing potential. However, Cawthorne (2008) has also mentioned that at the services industry especially in tourism is the major source of income for Hong Kong. Therefore, the study of this dissertation had focused to reveal to relationship and significant factors which can create the tourism flow between these two travels destinations.

1.2 Background of Research in Tourism study

Chon (2000) had described the travel industry in Asia as it had been widely develop since the end of World War II. The destination such as Bangkok and Hong Kong are referred to the sophisticate in tourism destination which major rely of services sector to support the economic and financial flows in their societies.

The tourism statistic from Hong Kong Census statistic website had showed that the number of visitors from Southeast Asia had been increasing from 20,780,000 persons in 2004 to about 28,850,000 persons in the year 2008 (see in Appendix A: Figure A). This higher number of visitors had expressed that Hong Kong is one of popular destination for Southeast Asian tourists. In relevant, the Daily World newspaper of Thailand which issued in the first quarter of the year 2010 had also refereed that Hong Kong is the one of famous destination for Thai travellers. The number of Thai visitors in first quarter of 2010 was 8,624,688 persons which was higher than the first quarter of 2009 for 12.5 percent. It had revealed that Thailand is the one of major tourists market in Southeast Asia which contributes to Hong Kong Tourism.

Song, Kong, and Chen (2008) have mentioned that the international tourists tend to have high satisfaction on Travel facilities in Hong Kong such as restaurants and accommodations. However, the researcher has discovered that there are only few literatures which mentioned about the outbound travelling intention of Thai tourists.

Jang and et.al. (2009) had suggested that the significant concept that useful for predicting the customers’ decisions is the travel motivation. Then it had pointed out the researcher to figure out the research topic which will be conducted in order to clarify and explore the significant travel motivation factors which can influence Thai people to visit Hong Kong. Therefore, the research topic entitles “Travel motivations for outbound tourism of Thai travellers for visiting Hong Kong” is designed.

Key theories and concepts

The main concepts in this dissertation is the push and pull travel motivation theory of Crompton (1979) which can help to revealed the perceptions and travel motivations of Thai tourists in proper format. The concept of push and pull motivation factors then be the major tools for investigating of this research. Furthermore, Mazanec, and et.al. (2001) were mentioned the theory of difference in consumers’ behaviors based on their characteristic and demographic attributes. Then the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is considered to classify the different level of expectations of Thai tourists toward Hong Kong.

Moreover, Blyth (2008) was mentioned the concepts of marketing focusing in the effective marketing strategies designing. Then marketing tools that suitable for Thai tourists are discussed. Moutinho (2000) also suggested the idea of the revisiting intention which can predict the potential tends of Thai tourist in the future. The all keys concepts then are analysed in this research

1.4 Aim and objective of the research

Research aim

The aims of this research is to create a more insight about Thai tourists market by reveal the significant means and factors which can influence Thai people to visit Hong Kong.

Research objectives

This research is planned to examine the factors which can affect to the outbound tourism motivation of Thai people by using Hong Kong as target travel destination. In consequence, to have more insight about the outbound travel motivations of Thai tourists the research objectives are stated in order to determine the principle of studying. The objectives of dissertation are:

To explore the travel intentions to visit Hong Kong of Thai tourists in term of push and pull motivation factors.

To examine whether age level and gender of Thai tourists have significant impact upon their travel motivation factors.

To identify the major effective marketing promotions that can attract Thai tourists to purchase the package tours to Hong Kong.

To investigate the revisiting intention to Hong Kong of Thai tourists.

1.5 Justification of study

The rationale and reasons to select the Tourism related topic is because the researcher is interest in tourism business and have been studying the Masters degree in International Tourism at University of Bedfordshire in UK. The destination to investigate was selected based upon the researcher’s home country which is Thailand and focusing on the capital city of Bangkok which is also the home town of researcher.

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The points of interesting to the researcher are the major motive of this outbound tourist and packages tour purchasing in Thai society. It is because Hong Kong is the destination which has both the western and oriental cultures. Brenner (2007) had described the different way of living such as the traditional temples and churches where located in the middle of the city along modern infrastructures and skyscrapers had create the uniqueness to Hong Kong environment.

Therefore, the researcher would like to perform this research in order to understand more about the Thai tourists and used the results to suggest for the better services and promotion tools that match with tourists’ demands. The understanding of Thai people’s motivations also can reveal more about what Thai tourist needs and required from their travelling. Moreover, the tourism flow between two travel destinations also might lead to higher cooperation and supporting of businesses among each other in the long-run.

1.6 Matters of Research Design

The researching process in this dissertation was planned to conduct in term of qualitative in order to investigate and reveal the inner felling and perspectives of Thai people toward Hong Kong. The three data collecting methods consists of in-depth interview, participants observation and questionnaire survey. The random sampling technique is used to select to sample units in order to obtain the primary data for research. The qualitative findings are supported by the quantitative statistics which can create the more reliable results. Then the data obtained from both qualitative and quantitative approaches are summarized and compare with the theories and concepts from literatures reviews to conclude the results of findings.

1.7 Organisation of Thesis

The structure for dissertation is follows:

Chapter 1: Background to the Research

Provided introduction and background to the tourism industries in both Thailand and Hong Kong followed by research aim and objectives. The purpose of this chapter is to give the overall understanding about the dissertation topic to readers. 

Chapter 2: Literatures Review

Critically review the current issues in travel motivation from previous studies in tourism. The literature review focused upon motivation research and makes reference to theories and statistics relevant to this dissertation.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Explain the research methodology which planned to conduct in order to obtain primary data for the research. The tools and techniques used in each stage of data gathering are clarified.

Chapter 4: Data Collection

The actual data collecting processes are described in order to inform readers about the actual data gathering procedures. The problems faced and adjustments of the research design are noted.

Chapter 5: Analysis and Discussion of Finding:

The research findings from all methods are summarised and are discussed in view of the dissertation’s objectives which stated earlier in chapter one. The thematic analysis framework is employed to analyse the finding and presented the final result into the flowchart. The final research results will be summarised and explained.

Chapter 6: Conclusion

This chapter is overview the research findings for the readers. The limitations of this of this work are discussed. In addition, the recommendations for further analysis and future studies which might relate to this research topic are presented.

Appendices  

This part included other useful tables, figures or some content that related to the dissertation study. The appendix had aimed to save the readers’ time for searching information by provided some useful information such as general data of destinations within this research.