Influence of Cultural Background on Visitor Segments’ Tourist Destination Image: A Case Study of Barcelona and Chinese Tourists

Mingge Tian, Gemma Cànoves, Yujing Chu, Jaume Font-Garolera and José María Prat Forga
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Mingge Tian: Faculty of Event and Economic Management, Shanghai Institute of Tourism, Shanghai Normal University, Fengxian District, Haisi Road 500, Shanghai 201418, China
Gemma Cànoves: Department of Geography, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
Yujing Chu: Tourism College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 201418, China
Jaume Font-Garolera: Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and History, Universitat de Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
José María Prat Forga: Department of Geography and History, Faculty of Humanities, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Tourists from different cultural backgrounds have different perceptions of the image of a tourist destination. This paper aims to investigate tourist destination image (TDI) from a national cultural perspective and to see whether there exists the influence of culture on a visitor segment’s destination image as well as their travel behavior and satisfaction. Barcelona as the destination and the Chinese market are utilized to present an empirical discussion of the study. Based on the results of the qualitative method previously conducted by the authors, a questionnaire was designed in this paper. The SPSS 22 program was used for data management and analysis. This study first demonstrates that TDI perceived by the Chinese visitors is influenced by their pro-social cultural background and, second, that the visitors greatly value prestige and social networking during the visitation. This study further discusses the reasons why the visitors greatly value prestige and social networking and how “facework” influences their travel behavior based on the concept of culture value orientation. Overall, this study contributes to the existing knowledge on the formation of perception of TDI by analyzing the influence of the tourist cultural background on their TDI.

Keywords: tourist destination image; Chinese tourism; tourism development; cultural sites; cultural background; culture value orientation; facework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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