Subcultural analysis of conceptualized tourism motivations
Marketing theorists attribute that culture influences the consumption patterns of product or service users. Therefore, this tendency necessitates for cultural analysis in many sectors of economy more so the tourism sector. The problem with studying the tourism sector is the limited parameter such as inadequate data about tourism related investigation. This study focuses to reduce the deficiency. The grip-group approach is key in analysis the cross-cultural similarities and differences. It was noted that the dimension groups and cultural types (grip group dichotomy) drives tourism motivation. Thus, the limitations and other related literature are effectively discussed and future studies described.
KEYWORDS: grip-group cultural approach, tourism drive; cross cultural research;
Subcultural analysis of conceptualized tourism motivations
Table of Contents
Subcultural analysis of conceptualized tourism motivations. 3
Tourism Motivation Cross-cultural Studies. 5
Conclusion and Recommendations. 11
Over the years, tourism has faced progressive growth to become the fastest growing economic activity globally. The literature on tourism motivation has been reviewed by many scholars over the past years as it is very crucial in the understanding of tourist behavior. This is since it is hard to understand the reason why people travel and many researchers have examined this topic and have made great progress (Bhadra, 2020; Li, Zhang, and Cai, 2016). Some studies have shown the significance of incorporating tourism motivation with culture as an important element that shapes the preferences based on their identity and behaviors. Culture refers to the beliefs and norms that are common for a group of people and is recognized widely by marketing tourists as one of the major factors that determine consumer behavior, even tourists (Duoping et al., 2019). It entails norms, beliefs, and standards shared by individuals and what makes them different from other people. Such shared values are connected to individuals since they were young and cannot be easily changed (Gezgin, 2017). Thus, it is very crucial to incorporate culture into tourism motivation studies. Past studies have used nationality as a major determinant of culture but these studies have been criticized that they underestimate the role of cultural dimensions in causing such dissimilarities. This study addresses this gap by applying the grid-group cultural theory. Most importantly, this study aims to achieve two research objectives; to determine the major tourism motivation of people from different social types and to compare and contrast the tourism motivation of the four major social types. It is a qualitative study that enhances the understanding of tourism motivation based on culture, the case of China.
Motivation is said to cause how humans behave and it is defined as the condition that triggers people to act in a particular manner for the satisfaction of their needs. The study of tourism motivation attempts to know travel behavior and therefore this topic is essential in the literature studies of leisure and tourism. The reason why people travel has not yet been determined due to four major reasons as explained by Dann (1981). These include tourists not willing to determine their real intention of traveling, not being able to know the true travel motive, not willing to express their real motive of traveling, and not being able to express such real motive of travel. Many scholars have attempted to study this topic as they have acknowledged this difficulty and the significance of comprehending tourism motivation. They have developed many theories such as the travel career model, push-pull factors, and escape seeking models (Dann, 1981; Fu, Cai, and Lehto, 2015; Gezgin, 2017; Robinson, 2015) to guide tourism motivation studies.
Similarly, the connection between tourism motivation and other behavioral factors have been studied like expectations, perception, and intentions (Geyer Jr, 2019; Li & Cai, 2012). However, this literature was done based on social psychological theories which are the reason why they did not provide the proper explanation for individuals’ failure to satisfy their needs through traveling and not through family or religion. Dann’s (1981) push-pull factors have been accepted as a sociological model of motivation. He explained that pull and push factors are demonstrated in two phases when people make travel decisions. Push factors are inside an individual and make them have a desire to travel to satisfy their psychological needs. On the other hand, pull factors are external such as the benefits that an individual can get from a particular destination that attracts them to that particular place. Dann (1981) argues that push factors are the desires that urge to travel such as the need to get away from family problems, social interaction, and affection similar to the needs relate to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. People would want to satisfy these needs by traveling not only because they are intrinsic to people but also because there are norms that govern the society and thus individuals want to gain social status and remove the feeling of isolation and day-to-day normal life (Michael, Wien, and Reisinger, 2017; Pisoiu, 2015). However, culture has not been given more concern in tourism motivation studies. Individuals behave according to their cultural systems which they develop as time goes as they socialize with other groups and are influenced by family values, regional subcultures, and society culture. Hatiboğlu and Habermas (2016) have studied the benefits of incorporating cultural factors in consumer behavior studies. There is a critical need for tourism motivation studies due to the increased sophistication and diversification of tourist behaviors.
In terms of cross-cultural psychology, culture is said to be ethical or emical. Based on etic, culture is stated as the collective programming of the mind which differentiates particular group members from another group (Hofstede, 1997, p. 5). This definition is focused on comparing different groups in cross-cultural consumer behavior studies. The emic approach defines culture as the means through which is behavior is viewed (Kirillova, Peng, and Chen, 2019). In terms of cross-cultural consumer behavior research, the identification of cultural or cultural groups which Li, Zhang, and Cai (2016) describe it as a crucial issue in cross-cultural research has not been explored. The essential approaches of cultural assessment have been identified by Manning (2017) include ethnological description, proxy usage, direct value inference, and indirect value inference. These four basic cultural assessment approaches are demonstrated in Appendix 1. This literature review identified two research gaps; nationality as a means of cultural affiliation has hampered the cross-cultural research on tourism motivation. Using cultural elements as a determinant variable why tourist behaviors are different and have overlooked certain cultural layers. The second research gap is that the current research shows serious ethnocentrism which assumes that all measures applies in all cultures.
2. Literature Review
The Chinese community is seen to be made up of varying cultures which is made up of multiple subcultures. These subcultures have varying cultural practices that can be said to greatly attract tourists to various parts of the country (Buffa, 2015). An example of one of the famous tourist attractions cultural practices is Chinese Damas. This subculture consists of older women who are vibrant, healthy, and hardworking and have time for publicity. Damas women’s age ranges from fifty years to seventy (Fu, Cai, and Lehto, 2015, p. 190). The Damas are energetic, passionate, but very intruding to other people’s personal lives, social activities, and political embracement. The nosy but joyful Damas love loud music and funny clothing. These two aspects make them suitable in the entertainment dances that they conduct in public and can are very entertaining. Tourists have been seen to travel from multiple parts of the world to experience this cultural phenomenon. They have strange looking but very flexible with healthy bodies that get the twists in better notions (Li, Zhang, and Cai, 2016, p. 90). The word Dama means father’s first wife, and therefore this subculture is often regarded as sweet mummies. This is a subcultural factor that has led to the growth of the tourism industry in china as they present impressive cultural practices that are unique to them and attract multiple tourists from all over the world. (Fu, Cai, and Lehto, 2015, p. 195). On the other hand, the increase in the number of Chinese tourists has created an environmental tourism bubble hence diluting the concept of authenticity.
The Great wall is a Chinese icon. Its relics, fortresses, and watch towers are important in demonstrating the Chinese culture, its national pride, architecture, arts, as well as its resistance and major projects (Buffa, 2015). Great wall has inspired many people to paint, write stories and also major Chinese legends.
Also known as the Peking Duck is a Chinese dish that entail crispy-skinned duck, spring onion, cucumber, and small pancakes.
This festival is the largest seasonal migration in China where people travel to reunite with their families in the most traditional way.
The imperial palace is a large tourist attraction in China. The Forbidden City is also called the Imperial Palace and it is the most important tourist attraction in China. Traced back to Yuan Dynasty, the Palace has become bigger in size after its transfer from Nanking. It got the name Forbidden city as ordinary citizens were not allowed to access the Capital. It covers 720,000 square meters of land, surrounded by a wall of 10 metres height, and towers in all the four corners.
3.1. The Great Wall
The Great Wall is like a dragon that winds up and down from East to West of China through the desserts, mountains, and plateaus. Though the wall have a little ruins due to it’s 2000 years of history, it is still one of the most appealing tourist attraction all over the world and the Chinese historical figure (Fu, Cai, and Lehto, 2015, p. 190).The wall was built through rammed earth, wood, and stones.
The roast duck’s origin is the Yuan Dynasty and has become popular in Beijing (Fu, Cai, and Lehto, 2015, p. 190). This dish is wrapped together with sweet and sour bean sauce which makes it the best bite served in most Beijing restaurants.
The Spring Festival is known as the year of the pig in the lunar calendar of China (Li, Zhang, and Cai, 2016, p. 90). The festival is a 40-day holiday where people go for tours or family reunions. The holiday starts in February and marks the Chinese New Year.
3.4. The Imperial Palace
The Palace is divided into two major parts, a part for ceremonial and administrative purposes and also a part for the Emperor and his concubines (Fu, Cai, and Lehto, 2015, p. 190). The Capital contains the meridian gate, the golden river bridges, the Hall that preserve harmony used for Emperor’s banquet, and the military courage hall used for Emperor’s private audience.
Today, the Great Wall has become an example of a culture that preserve its cultural heritage and opens China to the outside the world has become a great tourist attraction for China. The current Chinese art form involves its embroidery, decorations, photography, and post cards of the Great Wall. The Great Wall is also a symbol of unity in China. This is because it is connected with the first unification of China in the Win Dinasty. This attracts tourists as it show the ability of China to work together for the betterment of the country. As a tourist attraction, the Great Wall has become important in drawing millions of tourists to China to get the best experience of the Chinese culture.
The Peking Roast Duck has become one of the major popular in the world. The dish has become China’s national symbol which has attracted many tourists and diplomats. It has become the cultural symbol of the Chinese traditional food (Li, Zhang, and Cai, 2016, p. 90). Visitors from all over the world are now going to Beijing to get the chance to taste this Roast Duck.
The spring festival has become a major tourism trend in China. Many Chinese people are now traveling to explore new places and experience new things during the spring festival. According to a survey by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of domestic tourists traveling during the spring festival in 2019 were 415 Million people (Fu, Cai, and Lehto, 2015, p. 190).From this forecast, it has been predicted that this figure will reach 450 Million during this year’s spring festival. In the past three years, their has been an increase in the number of people going for tours during the spring festival. This is because tourism has become the major form of leisure activity for the younger generation. This has promoted tourism in the Chinese economy.
The Imperial Palace is one of the major preserved heritage sites in China. It has a collection of the best Chinese wooden artifacts in the world. Apart from its complexity, the details of its architecture is thrilling. Every detail of this artifacts show the features of the Chinese culture and the traditional architecture. The decorations of the gates of this Palace are in nine-by-nine arrays that show the supreme and eternal nature of the Chinese culture (Li, Zhang, and Cai, 2016, p. 90). The Forbidden city museaum is one of the major cultural museums with the best world’s Chinese historical artifacts. Tourists who visit this complex can get a better view of the stunning ancient buildings and treasures. This cultural significance makes the forbidden city the unique and popular tourist site for Chinese and foreign visitors.
This study is based on the DVI approach to assist in identifying a valid cultural group by using the grid-group theory. Three major claims have been identified by this theory. The major assertion states that culture has a great influence on human behavior and cultural orientations affect an individual’s attitudes and behaviors. The second assertion states that cultural types or cultural topology are distinguishable and this involves cultural bias patterns and social connections (Li, Zhang, Xiao, and Chen, 2015, p. 36). This cultural theory claims that there is a universal application of types of viable combination as they address the main questions of the existence of humans, for instance, who am I or how should I behave? (Prayag, Suntikul, and Agyeiwaah, 2018). The basis of this claim is on the assumption that how people organize their social relations is derived from their preferences, attitudes, norms, or values. This is shown by the basic dimensions of their social life, the group, and the grid. Appendix 2 shows the two dimensions of the four crucial social types.
The hospitality and tourism industry has had a limited application of this model. Wilson (2018) has criticized the grid-group model because of its determinism and reductionism. Despite these critics, many scholars have applied this grid-group model to interpret environmentalism, risk perception, work cultures, and the religious society (Li, Zhang, Xiao, and Chen, 2015, p. 39; Prayag, Suntikul, and Agyeiwaah, 2018). This model was applied by Duval (2018) to determine the connection between migration and tourism. The author described the four main types of migrants were explained. However, this study showed only the features of tourists in every dimension, but they did not demonstrate that the empirical data was valid.
This study was based on the group-grid theory and made a comparison of tourism motivation in the Chinese cultural context. It found three forms of subculture. In general, the study is in line with previous tourism motivation studies. The Chinese government should make preparations ahead of the spring festival to enhance travelling. To ensure convenience of the public transport, they should introduce technology to ensure efficiency during the period of travel rush. For instance, railways companies should introduce ticketless travel where tourists just swipe their smartphones to board trains. Also, rather than buying online tickets and collecting them from the railway stations, they should come up with a way for tourists to scan QR codes through their phones to pass ticket checks. Since more tourists visit these major Chinese cultural sites, tour guides should be encouraged to use Chinese Signage to provide instructions in Chinese. Also, tourist services should be improved by providing maps and visual materials to assist visitors to know where they are going and what they will be doing. Since the visitors come from different cultures, tour guides should avoid using humor as such cues does not apply across all cultures. Some tourists may be confused by some jokes that do not apply in their cultures.
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