Hong Kong residents traveling to Japan on an individual basis: a cultural perspective

This study investigates the travel behavioral characteristics of Hong Kong residents through checking their comfort level on their past independent travel experiences to Japan. In-depth personal interviews were conducted with 46 respondents. The design of the questionnaires is based on the culture shock component model suggested by Pearce (Pearce 2005a). Due to a lack of information on independent travel, another separate interview was conducted with a travel agency manager who is specializing in selling independent travel packages. Two main types of travel behavioral characteristics of Hong Kong travelers who had visited to Japan on an individual basis were identified in this study. Namely: safety and familiarity seeking behaviors. Safety seeking behavior is mainly due to cultural factors that the Hong Kong independent travelers are risk adverse, prudent on safety issues, being collectivistic and trying every possible ways to reduce risks such as looking for authoritative guidance for advice. On the other hand, the behavior of familiarity seeking is due to both psychological and cultural reasons. All these behaviors fit Plog’s (Plog 1974) result in categorizing Hong Kong travelers as ‘near-psychocentric’ because they have a dependable personality that they are cautious in making decisions, preferring something popular and familiar to them. By identifying Hong Kong independent travelers’ behavioral characteristics, the extent of incentives provided by Japan was also discovered. A demand-supply relationship was used to describe the interactions between Hong Kong independent travelers (the demand generator) and Japan (the incentive supplier).It is found that to a large extent, Japan provided incentives to Hong Kong independent travelers. Nevertheless, there are areas that the Hong Kong travelers were relatively uncomfortable with, including communication with the locals, adaptation to street forms and transport systems. As a result, recommendations for the betterment of future independent travel industry are presented.published_or_final_versionChina Development StudiesMasterMaster of Arts in China Development Studie