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

Abstract

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.