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2013 19: 301Journal of Vacation MarketingAnna Kwek and Young-Sook Lee

Consuming tourism experiences: Mainland Chinese corporate travellers in Australia  

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Article

Consuming tourismexperiences: MainlandChinese corporate travellersin Australia

Anna Kwek and Young-Sook LeeGriffith University, Australia

AbstractPrevious researchers have studied the consumption values of Chinese consumers; however, limitedstudies focused on the consumption behaviour of Chinese corporate travellers. This study exploresthe consumption behaviour of Mainland Chinese corporate travellers at leisure. Participant observa-tion of 12 travel groups indicates that tourism is seen as a reflection of modern lifestyle and understoodin the narrow sense of material consumption and modern developments in the society. The findingsdemonstrate how Chinese corporate travellers embrace aspects of materialistic consumerism that notonly offers luxury and status recognition but also reflects a particular form of collective gaze that con-stantly searches for modern development.

KeywordsConspicuous consumption, group tour setting, Mainland Chinese corporate travellers, shoppingbehaviour, tourist gaze

Introduction

While previous investigators have examined the

consumption values of Chinese consumers, few

studies have focused on the consumption beha-

viour of Chinese corporate travellers. Like Main-

land Chinese tourist travel, government and

business travel is increasing; and in the last two

decades, a number of investigators have given

attention to Chinese tourism and tourists (Cai

et al., 1999; Ryan and Mo, 2001; Yoo et al.,

2004; Zhang and Lam, 1999). However, the liter-

ature on Chinese outbound tourism has yet to

address the significance of the corporate market

segment and to examine its way of consuming

tourism experiences. This neglect is surprising,

as Chinese corporate travellers’ consumption

behaviour presents a significant issue for the

international tourism sector because of the num-

ber of travellers involved, the expectations for

growth in the market, and the segment’s potential

for economic impact.

This study examines Mainland Chinese cor-

porate travellers’ consumption of tourism experi-

ences in Australia. Each year from 2001 to 2010,

over 5 million government/business travellers

travelled overseas, with the annual number

increasing by 258,000 during the decade

(National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2010).

In Australia, the number of arrivals for business

purposes constitutes over 16% of the total num-

ber of arrivals from Mainland China (Tourism

Research Australia, 2011), with corporate travel-

lers having a significant economic influence. The

itineraries of corporate group tours involve mul-

tiple destinations, and group members stay at

Corresponding author:

Anna Kwek, Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and

Sport Management, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith

University, PMB 50, Gold Coast Mail Centre, Queensland

9726, Australia.

Email: a.kwek@griffith.edu.au

Journal of Vacation Marketing19(4) 301–315ª The Author(s) 2013Reprints and permission:sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.navDOI: 10.1177/1356766712473995jvm.sagepub.com

four- and five-star hotels, dine extravagantly, and

travel in style. Of the Mainland Chinese tourist

segments visiting Australia, corporate travellers

have the highest expenditure per visitor (Tourism

Research Australia, 2011), in part because

expenses are often paid for by governmental

departments or private businesses since the rea-

sons for travel are business related, such as

attending meetings, trade fairs, and conferences,

visiting clients and factories, and enjoying incen-

tive trips.

Clearly Mainland Chinese corporate travel

represents a sizeable market segment whose con-

sumption patterns are of interest, yet it remains

an under-studied area in English-language tour-

ism literature (Kwek and Lee, 2010). With num-

bers in arrivals expected to grow (Tourism

Research Australia, 2011), understanding how

these corporate travellers consume tourism can

better assist and support inbound tour operators,

tourism retailers, local restaurants, and hotel

operators catering to this specific target market

plan, design, and market their vacation products.

In this study, Mainland Chinese corporate travel-

lers comprise government and business tourists

whose main trip purpose is work (Cai et al.,

2001; Jang et al., 2003).

Understanding who Mainland Chinese corpo-

rate travellers are, what they do in their leisure

time overseas, and how they consume tourism

experiences is especially important as an aspect

of contemporary consumerism. A central charac-

teristic of this understanding is the recognition

that, rather than being a series of discrete events,

consumer consumption is a process in which

social relations, structures, and practices play out

in everyday life (Douglas and Isherwood, 1996;

Kim, 2008; Woodward, 2007). Consumerism in

China is presently undergoing a dynamic revolu-

tion (Chao and Myers, 1998; Ho, 1997; Wang

et al., 2000b), manifesting a unique embracing

of Western ideologies, lifestyle, and products

(Arlt, 2006; Bao et al., 2003; Tai and Tam,

1996; Wang et al., 2000a). This dramatic trans-

formation opens the way for marketers of vaca-

tion travel to promote modern lifestyle and

tourism choices that Chinese consumers crave

for.

Although corporate travel relates primarily to

business, this form of travel blurs the distinction

between pure business travel and conventional

leisure travel, as corporate travel involves partic-

ipation in leisure activities when work is com-

pleted (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2001). For

example, Chinese corporate travel is often

organised by travel agencies that place travellers

in groups with tour itineraries that include exten-

sive sightseeing and shopping (Bailey, 1998).

As the greater expenditures for corporate

travel indicate shopping, accommodations, din-

ing, and other tourism consumption experiences

may reveal the underlying social structure of the

Chinese society and draw attention to status sym-

bols, class division, and social norms and rela-

tionships. These social meanings influence the

way travellers assign meanings to their tourism

consumption experiences, particularly in a

high-context and collectivistic culture such as

China (Yau, 1994; 2000). However, despite the

growth of tourism consumption among Mainland

Chinese tourists and corporate travellers, tourism

research has not yet traced the ways in which

individuals create meaning in these tourism

exchanges (Morgan and Pritchard, 2005), espe-

cially with respect to Chinese corporate

travellers.

Closely related to the creation of social mean-

ing through tourism consumption is the notion of

tourist gaze (Urry, 1995). Tourist gaze is a

socially structured way in which a tourist sees

experiences and assigns meaning to places and

images in relation to opposite, non-tourist forms

of social experience and consciousness. Each

individual’s gaze is thus unique, because it is dif-

ferentiated by society, social group, and histori-

cal period. While the notion of tourist gaze is

important, limited research has examined the

ways Chinese tourists exercise their gaze (Chan,

2006; Ong and du Cros, 2012).

Through application of the concept of tourist

gaze, this study explores the meanings Chinese

corporate travellers attach to their touring experi-

ences and demonstrates how these travellers

understand tourism in the sense of material con-

sumption. With the aim of providing insights into

the consumption practices of Mainland Chinese

corporate travellers, this study argues that con-

spicuous consumption moulds and directs tourist

behaviour, specifically by patterning the ways of

consuming and gazing among Chinese corporate

travellers.

This article proceeds as follows. The next

section explores current literature on the con-

sumer behaviour of the Chinese people and the

concept of tourist gaze. The subsequent sec-

tion describes and justifies the participant

observation methodology in the current study.

The third section presents the findings, with the

final section comprising discussion, implications,

and limitations.

302 Journal of Vacation Marketing 19(4)

Literature review

Transformation of Chinese consumerism

Previous investigators have established that the

ways individuals experience leisure can contrib-

ute to understanding associated occurrences in

society, such as social class distinction (Veblen,

1953), shopping and social identity (Miller

et al., 1998), and the tourist experience (McCabe,

2002). These studies have demonstrated that

closely observing individuals participating in lei-

sure activities can provide social scientists with

insight into the everyday life of a society. Tourist

behaviour reflects and magnifies the concerns of

everyday life, which ‘provides a framework for

understanding changes in society’ (McCabe,

2002: 63). As a sociocultural phenomenon of the

modern world, tourism is closely interconnected

with wider social and cultural changes and devel-

opments in both the home and host countries.

In a highly collectivistic society like China,

the emphasis on human relatedness and connect-

edness is often reflected through the construction

of social order, whereby individuals view them-

selves in relation to significant ‘others’ (Chu,

1985), and the focus on collective identity and

maintenance of social group esteem takes prece-

dence over individualistic identity (Triandis,

1989; 1995). Therefore, individuals in collecti-

vistic societies are concerned with where they

are positioned in the social hierarchy and how

others perceive them. Inevitably, Chinese con-

sumption behaviours tend to be influenced by

members of individuals’ social networks and

demonstrate both in-group membership and

group distinction (Li and Su, 2006). The need

to subscribe to societal demands as well as to

maintain ‘a particular appearance of things’

about oneself has led to increased interest in

luxury-branded goods.

These cultural factors take on added impor-

tance, as consumerism in China undergoes a

major transformation. In the absence of state-

regulated labour and the factors that previously

inhibited the growth of consumerism, attitudes

toward work and income have begun to change.

The open-door policy of the late 1970s launched

a range of policies that led to remarkable social

and economic changes in the major cities of

China. These policies focused particularly on

entrepreneurship (Zhang, 2002), consumption, and

the accumulation of individual wealth (Farquhar,

2002; Yang, 2000) and resulted in the emer-

gence of a middle class, as many Chinese

aspired to a better life (Chao and Myers,

1998; Gamble, 2001).

Increased income levels led to demand for

household and luxury items, not only those pro-

duced domestically but also those that were more

expensive, imported, and internationally known.

Indeed, the rapid economic growth in China

since 1992 has vastly increased the variety of

products available for local consumption,

prompting local adages reflecting the power of

the consumer, such as ‘the consumer is god’

(Ho, 1997), and the maxim that ‘when one eats,

one wants the food to be nutritious; when one

wears clothes, one wants a more comfortable fit;

when one uses merchandise, one wants the high-

est quality’ (Chao and Myers, 1998: 365).

As the notion of a consumer society has gra-

dually come to dominate the Chinese market,

interest in well-established foreign-made goods

has increased. A combination of factors, includ-

ing years of material deprivation, recent expo-

sure to Western influences, and the emphasis

on face in Chinese societies, has created and

encouraged the pursuit of hedonic consumption

(Wang et al., 2000a). Weary of the poor quality

of goods made in China, many Chinese consu-

mers have turned to prominent international

brand names for quality and peace of mind

(Ho, 1997) and are adopting the perception, com-

mon in developing countries (Wang and Chen,

2004), that imported goods are of better quality

and are fitting status symbols. As many Chinese

consumers are motivated by the desire to impress

others with their economic wealth, they prefer to

purchase the more expensive and exclusive

imported products.

This practice of luxury consumption (Wong

and Ahuvia, 1998), or conspicuous consumption

(Piron, 2000), refers to consumers’ willingness to

pay a higher price for a functionally equivalent

good (Bagwell and Bernheim, 1996). Depending

on their use, goods and services acquire social

meanings, and when they are used as a form of

communication their consumption has the power

to socially include and exclude (Douglas and

Isherwood, 1996). Goods and services are thus

a way for society to systematically mark rituals

and reflect social integration. Consumption is a

dynamic process, within which meanings are

constantly being redefined and negotiated, and

consumption of tourism must be studied in the

context of a changing global environment and

cannot be ‘separated from the social relations

in which [it is] embedded’ (Urry, 1995: 129).

Kwek and Lee 303

In their pursuit of social status, Chinese peo-

ple have placed significant emphasis on Western

symbols of modernity (Yan and Santos, 2009),

such as air conditioning and refrigeration (Ho

and Ng, 2008). As Chinese consumers attempt

to make up for lost time, possessing such com-

modities suggests the individual is part of mod-

ern living in China (Chao and Myers, 1998).

The emphasis on wealth therefore makes status-

oriented purchases important, as consumption

and purchases are competitively motivated to

achieve higher social status. Luxury items –

including international travel – are generally pur-

chased for status rather than because of consumer

sophistication and taste (Blok, 2002).

In the last two decades, the numbers of Main-

land Chinese participating in outbound tourism

have increased significantly. Besides travelling

within Asia to popular destinations such as Hong

Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam,

and Laos, a growing number of Chinese tourists

are venturing into Western countries like France,

Italy, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand

(Arlt, 2006; Chan, 2006). Arrivals into Australia

by Mainland Chinese tourists, which grew by

24% from 2009 to 2010, are expected to continue

to be Australia’s most valuable inbound market –

presently worth $3.1 billion, with the Chinese

tourist spending on average of $7,886 per trip

(Tourism Research Australia, 2011). Tourism is

thus becoming a widely accepted activity and is

often used as a marker of prosperity in modern

Chinese living. These prior studies suggest that

prevailing social norms can be expected to have

a major impact on how Mainland Chinese corpo-

rate travellers consume tourism experiences.

The notion of tourist gaze

The concept of tourist gaze provides a useful

framework for exploring tourist experiences of

Mainland Chinese corporate travellers (Urry,

1992; 2002). The tourist gaze is a socially struc-

tured way in which a tourist views experiences

and assigns meaning to places, among other

things (Lee, 2001). The tourist constructs the

meanings of tourist places in relation to non-

tourist forms of social experience and conscious-

ness, and each individual’s gaze is differentiated

by society and shaped by normal practices that

are apparent in everyday life:

By considering the typical objects of the tourist

gaze, one can use these as to make sense of ele-

ments of the wider society with which they are

contrasted . . . . Thus rather than being a trivial sub-

ject tourism is significant in its ability to reveal

aspects of normal practices which might otherwise

remain opaque (Urry, 1990: 2).

In the early works of Urry, the concept of the tour-

ist gaze focussed on the ‘relationship between the

social environment and the physical environ-

ments, and the interdependencies between the

consumption of material objects and the natural

and built environments’ (Urry, 1995: 1). This rela-

tionship has consequences for the spatial organi-

sation of consumption and production, as the

tourist gaze is shaped by the structures and orga-

nisation of tourism as well as by the symbolic

meanings created by tourism destinations and

sites. A ‘place’ is constructed through elements

of anticipation, daydreaming, fantasy, and intense

pleasure that are outside the normal place of work

and home and is further reinforced by ‘non-tourist

practices such as magazines, film, TV, literature,

records and videos’ (Urry, 2002: 3), making tour-

ism a collection of signs (Urry, 1990). Thus, the

tourism experience is heavily dominated by social

interactions between people, signs, and symbols.

Not only is the gaze constructed through

signs, but the whole system of tourism is a col-

lection of signs. In a competitive industry such

as tourism, industry professionals are constantly

attempting ‘to reproduce ever-new objects of the

tourist gaze’ (Urry, 1990: 133) to attract tourists,

and tourists must be taught ‘how, when and

where to gaze’ (Urry, 1990: 9). To create an

object worthy of the tourist gaze, destination

marketers must be able to construct images of

distinctiveness from selected aspects of the desti-

nation’s architectural, historical, social, and

behavioural dimensions (Meethan, 1996). Even

though these images might not be the true repre-

sentation of the destination (because they involve

unreal and inauthentic elements), they become

symbolic and are deemed authentic and real by

tourists (Edwards, 1996).1

Implicit in the study of the tourist gaze is the

use of visual images in marketing the tourism

destination. Tourism is distinctively visual, with

images in marketing materials performing an

important role of communication between the

destination image and the tourist (MacKay and

Fesenmaier, 1997). Marketing materials are crit-

ical representations of place–product relation-

ships in the imagined cultural geography of the

consumer, with tourist brochures being the most

common and effective materials that act to ‘woo,

seduce, inform, project and sell in one operation’

304 Journal of Vacation Marketing 19(4)

(Dann, 1993: 893). Tourism destination images

communicate the created experience to the

potential tourist.

However, recent works on tourist gaze have

argued that the nature of the gaze should be

studied in conjunction with the performance turn

(Edensor, 2000; Perkins and Thorns, 2001;

Larsen and Urry, 2011). The performance turn

stipulates that ‘tourists are not only audiences but

also performers within complex networks of

other tourists and tourist brokers’ (Larsen and

Urry, 2011: 112). Tourism experiences involve

not only the physical body but also gender, age,

sex, and ethnicity (Crouch, 2002). Therefore,

tourism experiences engage a variety of senses

that together produce a distinctive and unique

experience (Rodaway, 1994) and also include

active bodily involvement and physical activity

(Larsen and Urry, 2011). The tourist gaze is no

longer just ‘travelling eyes’ but is ‘embodied,

multi-sensuous, collaborative and technologized

doings and enactments’ (Larsen, 2008: 26)

framed by social rules, styles, and power rela-

tions (Larsen and Urry, 2011).

This study argues that performances are fun-

damental to the notion of the tourist gaze. Central

to this argument is that this embodied way of see-

ing is also context specific bounded by the socio-

cultural, economic, and political frameworks

within which tourists live. While Chinese tour-

ism has received much research attention in the

last decade, not much work has explored how the

underlying societal values influence the ways in

which Chinese tourists consume tourism experi-

ences. This study addresses this neglect by exam-

ining the intertwined concepts of consumption

(which involves both body and senses) and tour-

ist gaze to demonstrate how the wider patterns of

Chinese societal values shape leisure activities

such as tourism, especially with respect to the

Mainland Chinese corporate traveller.

Thus, using the Gold Coast, Australia, as the

context for the study, this research investigates

the tourist behaviour of Mainland Chinese corpo-

rate travellers during the leisure component of

their trips, examining these tourists’ ways of con-

suming and gazing. Specific questions the study

addresses are:

Research Question 1: How does tourism con-

sumption of the corporate traveller function

in the Chinese sociocultural context?

Research Question 2: Do Chinese corporate

travellers on the Gold Coast, Australia,

exhibit a unique tourist gaze?

Methodology

To address the research questions, this study

adopted an interpretive, qualitative research

paradigm that was informed by social construc-

tionism ideologies. Interpretive research ‘looks

for culturally derived and historically situated

interpretations of the social life-world’ (Crotty,

1998: 67). In adopting a social constructionism

ideology, this study acknowledges that reality

is constructed and as such, reality and truth are

coproduced by the researcher and the partici-

pants being investigated (Denzin and Lincoln,

1998). Consequently, social constructionism

assumes an ontology that recognises multiple

realities and is informed through consensus, and

a subjective epistemology that accepts research-

ers as part of the research setting and strategy.

Specifically, the social constructionism lens

enabled the researchers to better understand how

Mainland Chinese corporate travellers in a tour

group construct and deconstruct social meanings

of tourism consumption and gazing. The study

relied on the qualitative methodologies of parti-

cipant observation and interviews.

Participant observation is used to collect

detailed information about participants engaged

in activities that reflect complex social phenom-

ena (Carson et al., 2011). Instead of asking peo-

ple to comment about what they do or how they

think, qualitative researchers observe people’s

behaviour in real time either from a distance or

by engaging with the participants in a role of

observer-as-participant. Focussing on naturally

occurring behaviours, the researcher collects

observational data that reflect participants’ inter-

nalised cultural norms and values (Silverman,

2001). Acting as observer-as-participant, the first

author engaged with the research participants by

participating as a tour member and serving as an

assistant to the tour guide when the need arose.

This participation allowed the researcher to

develop rapport with the participants and opened

the way for interviews with the travellers and the

tour guides that were used to confirm or further

illustrate the observed phenomena.

Data collection involved fieldwork observa-

tions of 12 fully guided tours of the Gold Coast,

Australia. Participants were 86 Mainland Chi-

nese nationals visiting Australia on a corporate/

leisure trip, who had chosen the Gold Coast for

the leisure segment of their trip. The smallest

group had 2 members, while the largest had 16.

The length of participants’ stay on the Gold

Coast varied from 1 to 3 nights, which

Kwek and Lee 305

constrained the researcher’s observational time

to 1 or 2 full days with each group.

Compared to the mass tourist from Mainland

China, the corporate traveller is more likely to

be well travelled and better educated and to pos-

sess higher disposable income. Corporate travel-

lers come from a variety of professions, but

participants in this study were primarily govern-

ment officials, private business personnel, and

incentive corporate travellers. Incentive corpo-

rate travellers may be suppliers and buyers or

high-achieving executives for whom the trip is

a reward. As corporate travel is usually internally

funded by the participant’s unit, department, or

organisation or is externally sponsored by private

businesses, the travel purpose is typically busi-

ness oriented. While both mass tourists and cor-

porate tourists tend to travel in groups, the

funding for corporate travel leads to a higher

quality of accommodation, meals, and transport.

In addition, the brief length of the trip, flexibility

of the tour itineraries, and smaller group size

are characteristics of corporate travel. Table 1

presents demographics of participants in the 12

groups in this study.

As Table 1 shows, all the tour groups observed

were travelling for reasons related to their work.

Of the participants, 75 were male, a number

proportionately consistent with prior research

investigating Mainland Chinese corporate travel-

lers (Jang et al., 2003). Ages ranged from 30 to

65 years, and a majority of participants resided in

major capital cities in China. Most participants

were middle to top management executives, with

several top government officials also participating.

Aimed at understanding the touring experi-

ences of Mainland Chinese corporate travellers

at leisure, the research observations focussed on

the experiences and activities of tour members.

Unstructured and informal conversations were

held throughout the participant-observation field-

work. Since the stay on the Gold Coast constituted

the ‘rest and relaxation’ part of the travellers’ itin-

erary, the techniques adopted for interviewing

participants favoured informal interviews and

conversations. This approach tended to make par-

ticipants more relaxed and more willing to engage

in conversation. Informal forms of interviewing

also have the advantage of being fluid and allow-

ing in-depth probing into a given concept (Cohen,

1984).

To initiate the conversations, the researcher

(the first author) asked participants whether this

was their first trip overseas and if not, where else

they had been and what their experiences were.

During shopping excursions, conversations with

Table 1. Participant demographics.

Groupno.

Groupsize

Sex ofparticipants Age range Chinese cities Line of work Purpose of trip

1 6 4 males 40–50 years Shanghai, Beijing,Chengdu

Electronics To visit suppliers inAustralia2 females

2 4 3 males 30–40 years Shanghai Manufacturing To visit suppliers inAustralia1 female

3 16 12 males 40–60 years Various parts ofChina

Manufacturing Incentive cum studytour4 females

4 4 4 males 45–55 years Beijing, Dalian,Inner Mongolia

Coal mining Factory visit

5 10 8 males 40–65 years Shenyang Aerospace Study tour2 females

6 8 8 males 35–60 years Yunnan Electricity Study tour7 4 3 males 40–55 years Wuxi, Beijing,

ShanghaiWoollen fabric To visit suppliers in

Australia andNew Zealand

1 female

8 10 10 males 45–65 years Dalian Higher education Study tour9 12 11 males 40–60 years Sanya Tourism Study tour

1 female10 2 2 males 35–40 years Shengyang Vocational

educationTo meet with

universities inMelbourne

11 6 6 males 40–55 years Various parts ofChina

Suppliers of metal Factory visit

12 4 4 males 35–55 years Shanghai Electronics Study tour

306 Journal of Vacation Marketing 19(4)

the participants were initiated by asking who

they were buying for. To gain insight into parti-

cipants’ touring behaviour as well as to encour-

age them to speak freely, the researcher shared

her experiences and knowledge with the tour

members as a way to establish rapport. These

interviews were usually conducted during the

time spent waiting for other members of the

group (particularly at designated shopping out-

lets), the time travelling on the coach, and the

time before, during, and after a meal.

Observations were recorded throughout

the fieldwork process (Palmer, 2001; Carson

et al., 2001). In initial field trips, the presence

of a tape recorder tended to reduce the spon-

taneity of responses, and participants appeared

uncomfortable. To put the participants at

ease and encourage spontaneity, the principal

researcher engaged the participants in casual

conversations with no notebook or tape recorder.

Note writing was left to those times when the

tour participants were having a rest on the coach.

Discourses with the corporate travellers and clar-

ifications with the tour guides were undertaken

throughout the day. In addition, six in-depth

interviews were conducted concurrently with

fieldwork observation. Because Chinese societ-

ies place high emphasis on hierarchical struc-

tures, selection of participants for in-depth

interviews was based on the roles they played

within the group setting (examples of roles

include leader, an organiser, treasurer, and senior

and junior members) to obtain a broader range

of perspectives. In addition, the researcher

held numerous discussions with the tour guides

and these provided perspectives from service

providers.

Content analysis, both manual and using

NVivo (Patton, 2002), was used to identify, cate-

gorise, and code patterns in the materials col-

lected. Observations noted in the researcher’s

fieldwork journal were coded simultaneously

and continuously throughout the duration of the

fieldwork (Palmer, 2001). From the beginning

of the fieldwork, analysis was conducted simul-

taneously alongside the observations and inter-

views (Green et al., 2007; Holloway and

Wheeler, 2002). Open, axial, and reflective cod-

ing were used to interpret the empirical materials

(Neuman, 2003). The purpose of coding is to sys-

tematically reduce the materials collected as well

as analytically categorise the materials into

themes. Open coding is the initial stage of ana-

lysing empirical materials. In this phase, the

researcher labels particular behaviours and

actions found in the data and compares them with

others to decide which of them belong together

(Harry et al., 2005). In axial coding, the focus

is on the initially coded themes rather than the

raw materials (Neuman, 2003). The researcher

begins with an organised set of open codes and

starts ‘to group these discrete codes according

to conceptual categories that reflect commonal-

ities among codes’ (Harry et al., 2005: 3). Final

interpretation of the materials was grounded in

thematic analysis and constant comparison, with

emergent themes established through a process

of reflective coding. Table 2 illustrates the cod-

ing process. The themes emerging from this pro-

cess included the preference for Western brand

names and a unique tourist gaze that favours

Western development.

The backgrounds of both researchers were

well suited to the nature and purpose of this

study. The principal investigator, who took the

role of participant observer and conducted the

in-depth interviews, originates from Singapore,

has a Chinese ethnic background, speaks Man-

darin as a second language, and has worked fre-

quently as a freelance tour guide for Mainland

Chinese tour groups in Australia. Overall, the

principal researcher was well received by the

participants and interactions with them involved

a mutual exchange of information. Tour mem-

bers were curious about and interested in the

Australian culture and the experiences of Chi-

nese people residing in Australia, and as the prin-

cipal researcher was an overseas Chinese who

has resided in Australia for over 10 years, and

is a university teacher, tour members perceived

her as an appropriate source for the type of infor-

mation they wanted. The second author is a tour-

ism researcher educated in both South Korea and

Australia and has research expertise in East

Asian cultural philosophies in tourism studies.

The second author contributed to the design of

the research and interpretation of the findings

within the tourism studies context.

Study findings

Two themes emerged from the analysis of

the participant observations. First, the shopping

behaviour revealed the preference for Western

brand names. Second, the collective gaze of the

Chinese tourists revealed a tendency to favour

Western development, reflecting a search for

a particular form of modern development

that they perceive to be lacking in their home

country.

Kwek and Lee 307

Preference for Western brand names. A recurring

theme was the link between social status, buying

power, and association with Western thought.

Consistent with prior research (Wang and Chen,

2004; Wang et al., 2000), the data set made clear

that to climb the social ladder, one must be

dressed in well-known designer labels, schooled

in Western beliefs, and, if possible, invested in

Western property markets. Only through asso-

ciation with the more developed West can a

person truly rise above peers. Like the con-

sumption of luxury goods, the act of travelling

overseas – particularly to a Western country –

conveys societal meanings about wealth and

social class, affording the ability to position

oneself vertically within the socio-economic

hierarchy.

When purchasing gifts for themselves and

their immediate family, tour participants pre-

ferred well-known luxury-branded goods. Pre-

ferred brands included Omega and Rolex when

shopping for upmarket watches and brands like

Prada, Christian Dior, and Louis Vuitton when

buying leather goods. When questioned about the

importance of using and wearing these branded

goods, tour participants explained that while they

had the financial means to indulge in these

luxury products, they were also pressured by

social norms to conform to role expectations in

terms of how they dressed and presented them-

selves, especially in a workplace environment.

Those in executive and managerial positions

must dress appropriately or face discrimination

and disrespect:

Our positions in the workplace dictate our code of

dressing. We are often judged by our subordinates

by what we wear. If we are dressed too shabbily,

they [the subordinates] will look down on us. These

days, everyone is so brand conscious. (Female, late

30s, office manager, Dalian)

If I were just a lowly office clerk, nobody would

care what I wore. But as the head of my depart-

ment, dressing appropriately reflects my position

in the workplace and acts as a form of respect to

others. Dressing well also gives others a good

impression of oneself. The Chinese have a say-

ing, ‘To receive the worship of mankind, even

Buddha needs to dress ostentatiously’. When

I am at home, I wear whatever is most comfor-

table. (Male, early 40s, head of department,

Beijing)

Table 2. The coding process.

Text Open code Axial code Reflective

Our positions in the workplace dictateour code of dressing. We are oftenjudged by our subordinates by whatwe wear. If we are dressed tooshabbily, they [the subordinates]will look down on us.

Dress code isdictated byone’s positionat work place

Social status Particularly in a collectivistic andhierarchical society like MainlandChina, preference for Westernbrand names conveys importantsocietal meanings about one’ssocio-economic status

These days, everyone is so brandconscious. (Female, late 30s, officemanager, Dalian)

Brand conscious Social status

However, they all agreed that evenwhen they paid ‘top money’ for suchhouses in China, they were not ableto include in their purchase the cleanair and unpolluted environmentavailable in Australia. Above all, thecruise experience was anotheropportunity to compare the lifestyledevelopment between a developedcountry and China:

Clean air andunpollutedenvironment

Livingenvironmentoutside China

The gaze is centred on Westerndevelopment/lifestyle, developedthrough constant comparison ofthe level of development andmodernity between China andAustralia

This is the life one enjoys when livingin a modern and developed society.

Life in a modernand developedsociety

Modernisationanddevelopmentoutside China

This sense of living and enjoymentsimply cannot be replicated in China.(Male, late 50s, general manager,Beijing)

Constantcomparison

Constantcomparison

308 Journal of Vacation Marketing 19(4)

Other tour participants expressed similar sen-

timents. A female tour participant from Beijing,

who was travelling with her wealthy husband

on an incentive trip, stated that current societal

norms in China dictate the need to dress appro-

priately and expensively to reflect one’s socio-

economic status – especially when attending

social and professional functions – because inap-

propriate dress can negatively influence the way

others perceive the person and the spouse. She

shopped and browsed only in shops that retailed

luxury-brand goods and was particularly

focussed on the Christian Dior brand. Observa-

tion and casual conversations made clear that the

reason she focussed on Christian Dior was

because of the easily recognisable brand logo.

The display of wealth by an individual is

interpreted by others as a sign of success, while

the inability to display wealth is considered to

indicate failure. A tour guide reflected on the

relationship between the prevailing sociocultural

context and one’s economic status:

To be rich is still a relatively new concept to the

Chinese people who have been living in poverty for

decades. It hasn’t been an easy route to success.

Overseas travels [and] purchase of well-known

branded luxury goods are just ways to display their

wealth and achievement. If you’ve got money, you

must wear branded goods. For many of these newly

rich, their mentality is such that if a product is

Western and expensive, it must be good. In most

cases, they do not have clear understanding of the

product, only recognition of the brand. To conform

to societal expectations of being rich, the Chinese

people are simply chasing after branded goods to

reflect their social status. (Male, mid-40s, tour

guide for 25 years)

Tour participants perceived Western goods to

be superior to Chinese-made goods not only in

status but also in quality. This perception is

a reflection of both dissatisfaction with the

modernisation in China and an obsession with

the development of the West. The tour guide

explained that although Chinese-made goods are

competitive in terms of price, the frequent and

extensive media exposure of goods that are

poorly made owing to unethical practices of Chi-

nese producers has created a poor image of

Chinese-produced goods and built a lack of con-

sumer confidence. Research investigations sup-

port this explanation: in China, disregard for

the law and safety regulations, coupled with

deception and fraud to avoid quarantine

inspections, has resulted in the production of

inferior and defective goods (Bapuji and Beam-

ish, 2007; Harvey, 1999).

In further amplification of the preference for

upscale Western goods, the tour guide commen-

ted that taking corporate travellers to local shop-

ping centres was pointless, because most retail

shops in Australia carry products imported from

China. Tour members’ reaction would likely be,

‘We come from China – why come to Australia

to buy Chinese goods?’ In fact, the corporate

traveller participants often commented that

foreign-made goods had a longer lifespan than

Chinese-made goods, especially goods like cam-

eras and watches. The tour guide offered an addi-

tional reason for shunning Chinese-made goods:

they were considered cheap, and offering cheap

Chinese-made goods as gifts carried a social

stigma of being petty, stingy, and insincere.

In summary, the activities of shopping and

purchasing of souvenirs reflect the intricacies

of social and cultural complexities in Chinese

society as well as how these sociocultural values

continue to influence tourism behaviour. Souve-

nir shopping acts as a means for remembering the

trip, but the display of wealth through the pur-

chase of luxury goods is a way for tour partici-

pants to publicise their success. Purchasing and

using Western-made goods also appear to indi-

cate that a person is moving ahead of his/her

time, unlike most people in China.

Corporate travellers’ gaze at leisure: favouringWestern development/lifestyle. The second theme

emerging from the participant observation was

a distinctive Chinese gaze. Almost every tour

group showed a strong interest in Australian real

estate, even though the viewing of residential

houses is not a typical tourist activity. In partic-

ular, these corporate travellers wanted to see how

Australian people lived, especially those who

were in the upper middle to high income brack-

ets, because this would allow them to make com-

parisons between their own housing and that of

people living in a developed country like Austra-

lia. They were not interested in viewing housing

targeted at the middle and lower income groups.

To cater to this interest, the tour company

incorporated the viewing of houses into the Gold

Coast tour itinerary. When on the river cruises,

tour participants would gaze in admiration at

some of the most impressive and magnificent

houses fronting the river. Continuing along the

scenic river, members of the tour groups dis-

cussed the beautiful houses they had just seen,

fascinated and inspired by the sight of these

Kwek and Lee 309

magnificent homes situated by the river. Most of

the chatter centred on the pricing of these man-

sions and on comparing these prices to those in

Mainland China. Many participants thought the

prices of these houses were much lower than

those of a similar standard in China. However,

they all agreed that even when they paid ‘top

money’ for such houses in China, they were not

able to include in their purchase the clean air and

unpolluted environment available in Australia.

Above all, the cruise experience was another

opportunity to compare the lifestyle development

between a developed country and China:

This is the life one enjoys when living in a modern

and developed society. This sense of living and

enjoyment simply cannot be replicated in China.

(Male, late 50s, general manager, Beijing)

It’s not just the beautiful scenery and the clean air,

but the general feeling about this country . . . peo-

ple is so friendly here, they greet you even though

they don’t know you. If you do that in China, peo-

ple will think you are crazy or up to no good. In

general, the people here are very courteous and

well mannered; they patiently queue in line and

wait for their turn. In China, people are too busy

with making a living, and they have no time for

courtesy; cutting queues is a way of life. (Female,

early 40s, office manager, Shanghai)

It must be so nice to live overseas, especially

in such a well-developed country like Australia.

Unlike China, everything you see here is so modern

and the citizens here live a relatively comfortable

life. There is a huge proportion of Chinese popula-

tion who are still living under 2000 RMB a year. If

only China was as developed . . . . (Male, mid-40s,

marketing manager, Chengdu)

In an effort to satisfy the corporate travellers’

interest in viewing the Western lifestyle, the tour

agent arranged a trip to visit display home vil-

lages. Collaboration with an Australian builder

allowed the tour guides to take the Mainland Chi-

nese corporate travellers to visit the fully furn-

ished homes put on display by the builder,

where they heard a brief introduction to the

homes and were given brochures to take away.

This segment of the tour had two direct benefits.

As part of a city tour, it had no additional cost,

and it fully satisfied the interest of the tour mem-

bers. Additionally, if a sale materialised, the tour

agent and the tour guides would be awarded a

sales commission. While visiting the display

home centre, tour participants enthusiastically

inspected the various homes and asked questions

just like any prospective homebuyers. However,

only a handful showed any real interest in pur-

chasing a property, and the reason for this inter-

est was for investment purposes. According to a

number of tour participants, being a landlord is

an ambition of all Chinese people. A tour mem-

ber explained:

Chinese people have a history of fixation with

owning land. All Chinese people dream of owning

their own houses and becoming a rich landlord.

What is better than becoming a landlord and col-

lecting rent when you are old? If you have money,

you must invest it because when the economy is

bad, your money becomes small [loses value] and

worthless. But with real estate, the value increases

with time. Just look at all the wealthy people in the

world – their money is mostly invested in fixed

assets like houses, land, and buildings. (Male, late

40s, office manager, Xiamen)

In support of this observation, while most of the

tourists had no intention of purchasing a house

or land, all of them expressed enthusiasm and

interest. Some tour participants explained that

Chinese people gain understanding about how

people in different cities and countries live by

investigating the kind of houses in which they

live and the kinds of real estate prices they are

paying. These corporate travellers seemed to

gauge the prosperity of a destination by the

prices of real estate.

In sum, although viewing real estate is not a

typical tourist activity, these travellers’ interest

in real estate resulted from historical and socio-

economic forces prevalent in Chinese society

and produced a unique Chinese tourist gaze. As

observations on the field trips showed, tour

members were keen to compare the prices of

real estate in Australia with those at home.

Through this price comparison, they were able

to evaluate the level of development of their

home country in comparison with Australia,

drawing the conclusion that Australia and

Australians possess the characteristics of mod-

ernity, such as economic affluence and social

and political stability.

Discussion, limitations, and conclusion

While research has established that economic

and sociocultural occurrences influence the way

individuals experience leisure (Chua, 2000;

MacCannell, 1976), few studies have focussed

on how societal values affect the way Mainland

310 Journal of Vacation Marketing 19(4)

Chinese consume and experience tourism. In par-

ticular, the affluent corporate traveller segment

has been neglected. This study enhances the cur-

rent understanding of Mainland Chinese corpo-

rate travellers’ societal values, including the

growth of conspicuous consumption in China

and its influence on Chinese tourists’ gaze. The

results of this study are consistent with a broad

range of literature and suggest that the consump-

tion of tourism by Chinese corporate travellers is

not only tourism at a basic level but more impor-

tantly a way to learn modern ways of life and

advance one’s social status. The results of this

study offer two key insights with respect to

marketing vacation travel to Mainland Chinese

corporate travellers.

First, foreign travel and the concomitant

opportunities it offers for purchase of Western

luxury goods hold great importance for being

seen as moving up the social ladder. In China,

as in many developing countries, consumers per-

ceive imported goods as being of better quality

and as being status symbols (Ho, 1997; Wang

and Chen, 2004). In particular, social and politi-

cal conditions in Chinese society have created

and encouraged the pursuit of conspicuous con-

sumption (Wang et al., 2000). As the notion of

a consumer society gradually dominates the Chi-

nese market, the interest in well-established,

foreign-made goods increases.

As the current study demonstrates, this

emphasis occurs especially in the corporate

travel context. These travellers exhibited great

concern for the expressive or emotional value

of a product, and their purchasing behaviours

were predominantly driven by attributes such

as brand image, design, appearance, and packa-

ging. In shopping not only for themselves but

for gifts for others, they chose products more

for their symbolic or expressive value than for

their functional value. This finding affirms

earlier suggestions that luxury items in China

are generally purchased for status rather than

because of consumer sophistication and taste

(Blok, 2002).

While tour members observed in this research

practised conspicuous consumption to achieve

higher social status, none of the findings revealed

that the consumption of these luxury goods

resulted from individuals’ personal tastes. In

Western cultures, conspicuous consumption of

luxury goods often reflects an individual’s per-

sonal preference (Veblen, 1953) as well as serving

to define one’s social position (Bourdieu, 1984).

In contrast, this study found that conspicuous

consumption of Western luxury goods by Main-

land Chinese corporate travellers has little to do

with personal taste but very much to do with the

ability to participate in ‘modern’ activity and with

a significant need by individuals to subscribe to

societal demands. The use of luxury goods as

gifts, as well as the perceived superiority of West-

ern culture, may continue to grow as the Chinese

population becomes more affluent and more

exposed to Western influences. The findings of

this study have demonstrated that Mainland

Chinese corporate travellers’ preference for

Western-made luxury goods and services form

part of the cultural reproduction of social rela-

tions. Future studies may build on the present

study to develop a deeper and more comprehen-

sive understanding of this lucrative market.

A second insight from this study is that Main-

land Chinese corporate travellers have a collec-

tive curiosity that searches for signs of Western

modernity and development. The corporate tra-

vellers observed in this study actively sought

modern development, especially with respect to

real estate. This study confirms that the travellers

considered development in China to be inade-

quate and inauthentic (Chan, 2006), as was fre-

quently reflected in participants’ comparisons

of what they were experiencing in Australia with

what they knew in China, ‘being shaped by a

heavy developmentalist mentality, the gaze of

the Chinese tourists acts like a torch light search-

ing for signs and representations of development

and underdevelopment’ (Chan, 2006: 201).

Mainland Chinese travellers’ touring experi-

ences were characterised by constant compari-

sons between the socio-economic and political

development in Mainland China and Australia.

These comparisons covered everything, from

food, shopping, places, people, and culture to the

way of life of the two countries. Being open and

exposed to the Western context, even for a rela-

tively short period, allowed these Chinese travel-

lers to evaluate the level of development in China

against that of another nation.

Overall, this study illustrates the relationship

between tourism and the sociocultural structures

of Chinese society. As income levels in Main-

land China continue to increase and business

structures are globalised, tourism becomes a plat-

form for Mainland Chinese corporate travellers

to display their newly found wealth and social

status. Tourism is also an avenue for evaluating

the level of development within China and com-

paring it to the outside world. The ways in which

corporate travellers see and engage in tourism

Kwek and Lee 311

are sanctioned by the wider context of social and

cultural forces.

A number of implications for industry and

academia flow from this research. From a

broader perspective, Asia in general plays an

important role in the Australian economy. Austra-

lia has benefited from the people flows in the

region, with Asian visitors contributing approxi-

mately 40% of visitor arrivals (Australian Gov-

ernment, 2012). In particular, the China inbound

market in Australia is worth $3.26 billion in

2010, with a potential to contribute $7 to $9

billion annually (Tourism Australia, 2011). The

findings of this study illustrate the importance of

intercultural understandings for Australia and

other Western countries to continue to attract Chi-

nese business travellers. Only through developing

an improved knowledge of Chinese cultural traits

and values, including Chinese business culture

and etiquette, can tourism destination marketers

better tailor their marketing strategies and mes-

sages to attract this unique and lucrative group

of travellers.

For Mainland Chinese corporate travellers,

tourism is an indicator of modern life and afflu-

ence (Wang, 2000), and the ability to participate

in tourism as well as travelling overseas for work

is evidence of social and economic status and

well-being. Mainland Chinese corporate travel-

lers’ preference for Western luxury goods offers

a substantial market opportunity for retailers in

host countries. Further, corporate travellers’ high

interest in the Western lifestyle, as reflected in

development and upscale residential areas in par-

ticular, provides opportunities for tour operators

and property agents in Australia to consider a

joint marketing campaign aimed at capturing this

potential real-estate interest. Therefore, intercul-

tural education is necessary. Tourism workers

must understand the intricacies of Chinese cul-

ture. Ability to apply this cultural knowledge in

tourism interactions will inevitably build trust

and hence improve the tourism experience – par-

ticularly how social and cultural values influence

the choice and selection of destination activities

and shopping. Knowledge and understanding are

especially important for industry practitioners so

as to better design and create custom tourism ser-

vices and activities to suit Chinese corporate

travellers.

A limitation of this study is its focus on corpo-

rate travellers touring in Australia. Further

research could examine the behaviour of corpo-

rate travellers in other Western countries and

compare the findings with the results of this

study. A further comparison might extend to the

behavioural characteristics of corporate travel-

lers travelling on package group tours and others

travelling in other types of groups or indepen-

dently. In particular, further research into travel-

lers’ perceptions and meanings is warranted. An

extension of this study might explore the rela-

tionship between consumption and the gaze

using a mixed methods approach.

In sum, the current study suggests that the

Chinese corporate travellers’ touring experiences

reflect a search for a Chinese form of modern

lifestyle. That reflection entails distinct Chinese

ways of gazing and conspicuous consumption.

Unlike the conspicuous consumption practised

in Western cultures, Chinese corporate travel-

lers’ preference for imported luxury status goods

is driven mainly by the need to maintain and

increase one’s social face, conform to role expec-

tations, and subscribe to societal demands (Dou-

glas and Isherwood, 1996; Wong and Ahuvia,

1998). Particularly for Chinese consumers,

travelling abroad to spend money can be very

enjoyable and exotic, offering the opportunity

to demonstrate their achievement (Wang et al.,

2010).

Funding

This research acknowledges the support given

by the Centre for Tourism, Sport and Services

Research in the development of the article.

Notes

1. While the notion of tourist gaze has been received

with much interest by the tourism research commu-

nity, passive nature of the notion and its focus on

Euro/West centrism have been argued. For exam-

ple, Game (1991) criticised the narrow conceptua-

lisation of the tourist gaze with the case of place

meaning and myths at Bondi and argued that tour-

ists are involved in a myriad of activities that

include tasting, eating, and experiencing local

food, touching and smelling places, and touching

and feeling sand and sea. Perkins and Thorns

(2001) also showed that the gaze metaphor is ‘too

passive to encapsulate the full range of tourist

activities’ (p. 186), as the gaze notion encompasses

only one aspect of the tourist experience. Tourists

to New Zealand are involved in active participation

of bodily activities, preferring to do more than just

gazing. It is further suggested that international

tourism activities vary, because social, cultural,

and physical environment in countries differ. The

study of South Korean tourists to Queensland by

Lee (2001) highlighted the Euro/Western centrism

312 Journal of Vacation Marketing 19(4)

of the notion of gaze and emphasised the need to

focus on the sociocultural context in which the

tourist lives.

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