Comparative Research on Competitiveness of Shopping Tourism Industry - South Korea and Hong Kong

Abstract

Abstract

Comparative Research on Competiveness of Shopping Tourism Industry - South Korea and Hong Kong

Kim Sung-Ho Department of International Area Studies Graduate School of International Studies Seoul National University

The success of the tourism industry is determined by its competitiveness. A destination is competitive when it can attract and satisfy travelers. And, that competitiveness is determined by factors that influence the performance of people or organizations involved in providing the tourism products.

As we know, tourisms purpose can be divided into many kinds, such as medical tourism, cultural tourism, historical tourism and so forth. Among them, Shopping has risen as one of most significant component of the tourism industry. Even in recent years, shopping has turned out to be a determining factor for destination selection and an important part of the travel experience. Hence, shopping tourism destinations around the world have a great opportunity to exploit this new market by developing unique and attractive shopping tourism experiences.

In recent years, with growing living standards and high demand for foreign brands, the amount of outbound Chinese tourists has increased dramatically, and among the variety of destinations, Korea has turned out to be one of prime destinations for Chinese because it is geographically close to mainland China and famous for Han-Ryu culture as well. This trend is a considerable opportunity for Korean economic development, so the Korean government has made several promotions such as Korean Black Friday and tax refunds to attract more potential Chinese tourists.

But recently we are facing two challenges: one is increasing dissatisfaction with Korea, the other one is the rise of other competing destinations such as Hong Kong. According to a report by Korean Tourism organization, Chinese dissatisfaction rate has risen to 6.1% in 2014 from 2.2% in 2011. This has brought about unwillingness to revisit Korea and researchers say if this problem is not figured out, there will be big challenge with sustainable development of the shopping tourism industry.

With this background, this research explores the competitiveness of Korean shopping tourism industry by using Importance Performance Analysis (IPA). To provide implications for policy makers, a comparative analysis between Korea and Hong Kong has been undertaken. Factors pertaining to the destinations competitiveness were used to build an instrument that was used to make a survey for visitors from mainland China. Respondents were asked to rate the factors for importance and performance. The results were analyzed and discussed with the IPA grid. This research offers a quantitative analysis that can provide information for policy and managerial decisions in the shopping tourism industry.

Keyword: shopping tourism destination, Korea, Hong Kong, China, competitiveness, Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) Student Number: 2014-24305