2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A very special thank to Ms. Zanda Serdane, a wonderful supervisor for this Master Thesis, who has been so responsive and open to give a critical feedback throughout the research process. Due to her rich experience in research and tourism in particular, the author received a valuable advices and was pointed to the amendments and corrections that needed to be done to compile this paper. Another very special thanks the management of Hotel Eden Roc, especially to its General Director, Mr. Robert Sanchez, who supported the author during the research period and provided necessary administrative support to facilitate the process. Mrs. Xiao Lan, a friend of mine as well as my future colleague, who motivated and supported me with her valuable advices. Maria, Kevin and Salima for helping distribute and collect questionnaires in hotels.
Transcript
2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A very special thank to Ms. Zanda Serdane, a wonderful supervisor for this Master
Thesis, who has been so responsive and open to give a critical feedback throughout the
research process. Due to her rich experience in research and tourism in particular, the
author received a valuable advices and was pointed to the amendments and corrections
that needed to be done to compile this paper.
Another very special thanks the management of Hotel Eden Roc, especially to its
General Director, Mr. Robert Sanchez, who supported the author during the research period
and provided necessary administrative support to facilitate the process.
Mrs. Xiao Lan, a friend of mine as well as my future colleague, who motivated and
supported me with her valuable advices.
Maria, Kevin and Salima for helping distribute and collect questionnaires in hotels.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 5
LIST OF TABLES 6
LIST OF FIGURES 7
INTRODUCTION 8
1. MARKET SITUATION ANALYSIS 10
1.1. Latest developments in Chinese outbound travel market 10
1.2. Future prospects of the Chinese outbound travel market 15
1.3. Spain as a tourist destination 18
2. RESEARCH BACKGROUND 22
2.1. Understanding tourism 22
2.2. Consumer Behaviour and tourist Motivation Theories 23
2.3. Cultural differences and application of theories 25
2.4. Characteristics and consumer behaviour of Chinese tourists 28
2.4.1. The Demographics 28
2.4.2. The Lifestyle 29
2.4.3. Travel consumption 30
2.4.4. New trends in Chinese travelling pattern 33
3. MARKETING PRACTICES FROM OTHER DESTINATIONS
ATTRACTING CHINESE TOURISTS
35
3.1. Country initiatives in attracting Chinese travellers 35
3.1.1. Visa formalities 36
3.1.2. Representations in China 37
3.1.3. Marketing campaigns and other activities 38
3.3. Hotel initiatives to attract Chinese market 39
3.4. Online initiatives and social media 40
4. METHODOLOGY USAGE AND EVALUATION 42
4.1. Research methodology design 42
4.2. Inventory of tourism resources in Costa Brava 43
4.3. Survey Methods 46
5. INVENTORY OF TOURISM RESOURCES IN COSTA BRAVA 50
5.1. The Costa Brava 50
5.2. Sightseeing 52
5.2.1. Natural sights 52
5.2.2. Cultural and Heritage sights 54
5.2.3. Museums 56
5.3. Activities 56
5.3.1. Golfing 56
5.3.2. Wine tourism 58
5.3.3. Active tourism 58
4
5.4. Festivals and events 61
5.5. Accommodation services in the Costa Brava 62
5.5.1. Top rated luxury hotels 63
5.5.2. Other high category hotels 63
5.5.3. Hotel Eden Roc 64
5.6 Gastronomy and catering services 65
5.7. Airports 65
6. SURVEY RESULTS AND EVALUATION 67
6.1. Demographic factors of the respondents 67
6.2. Travel career ladder of the respondents 68
6.3. Push factors 70
6.4. Pull factors 71
6.5. Satisfaction with hotels 73
6.6. Qualitative responses 75
6.7. Interview with the hotel management 77
6.8. Aiming at Chinese tourists 79
CONCLUSIONS 83
RECOMMENDATIONS 85
LIST OF LITERATURE AND SOURCES 87
APPENDICES 94
Appendix 1.Questionnnaire in English and Chinese 95
Appendix 2.Interview questions 97
Appendix 3.Comparison of four hotels 100
Appendix 4.Questionnaire responses 101
Appendix 5.Brief notes of the interview answers 108
Appendix 6.Brief notes of the interview with Mr. Robert Sanchez 110
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CNY Chinese Yuan
UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organization
WCRD Wonderful Copenhagen Research & Development
BCG Boston Consulting Group
WTCF World Tourism Cities Federation
OECD Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development
WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council
COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute
GNTB German National Tourism Board
COTRP China outbound tourism research Project
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. International Tourism Expenditure by top five countries for
2012-2013
11
Table 2. Top 20 outbound destinations for Chinese tourists 12
Table 3. Chinese Travel spending by selected European destination 17
Table 4. Arrivals of non-resident tourists at national borders, by
country of residence
19
Table 5. Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions scores for China and the
USA
26
Table 6. Methodology design 42
Table 7. Structure of tourism resources inventory in Costa Brava region 45
Table 8. The main online sources of information for the online research 45
Table 9. The response rate of distributed questionnaires 47
Table 10. Average rainfall and average rainy days in Costa Brava 51
Table 11. Natural Parks in the Costa Brava 52
Table 12. Beaches at Sant Feliu de Guixols 54
Table 13. Eight major golf courses in the Costa Brava 57
Table 14. Sea and Seaside activities in the Costa Brava 59
Table 15. Top 6 most indicated push factors 70
Table 16. Top 8 most indicated pull factors 72
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Trends in Chinese outbound travel market 11
Figure 2. Chinese real GDP Growth: 1995-2013 13
Figure 3. Wealth distribution in China 14
Figure 4. Income distribution of the urban population (in millions of
inhabitants)
16
Figure 5. Number of overnight visitors to Spain (‘000s) 18
Figure 6. Share of Foreign Travellers by Region 19
Figure 7. Priority tourism products of Spain 20
Figure 8. Travel Career Ladder 24
Figure 9. Three levels of uniqueness in Mental Programming 25
Figure 10. Age groups of wealthy Chinese 28
Figure 11. Most important factors for Chinese tourists when choosing the next
international travel destination
30
Figure 12. Map of Spain. Location of Costa Brava 50
Figure 13. Average High/Low Temperature in Costa Brava 51
Figure 14. The number of traditional and popular festivals in the Costa
Brava
62
Figure 15. Demographic factors of the respondents according to gender 67
Figure 16. Demographic factors of the respondents according to age groups 67
Figure 17. Demographic factors of the respondents according to marital status 68
Figure 18. Demographic factors of the respondents according to travel partner 68
Figure 19. Frequency of travel to Europe by respondents 69
Figure 20. Frequency of travel to Spain by respondents 69
Figures 21. Proportion of responses, if Spain was the only destination of the
current visit
70
Figure 22. Booking pattern of the respondents 70
8
INTRODUCTION
The rise of the Asian giant, China during the last few decades has evoked a number of
important global economic, political, social and demographic trends that are shaping the
current global processes. China is the country with the largest population in the world – 1.3
billion people, which has evolved as the second largest economy after the USA (World Bank,
2015). The rise of social and economic developments in the country resulted in fast and
dramatic increase in the individual wealth and thus disposable income of its inhabitants.
This, in turn, allowed Chinese to travel more not only to short-haul destinations but also to
a distant countries and continents. With the outbound tourism from China growing in
dramatic paces, Chinese tourists are quickly becoming one of the most important segments
for growth opportunities. Since the country has recently become the world’s largest tourist
source markets, it gets under the focus of major travel destinations across the globe.
The topic of the given Master thesis had been chosen based on several reasons. Firstly,
the author of is undergoing studies in tourism management and is planning to devote her
career in this area in the future. Secondly, the author had years of work and study
experience in China, and possesses advanced level of Chinese language skills. Thirdly, the
management of Hotel Eden Roc, where the author underwent last two internships, became
interested in this research and supported her with necessary administrative resources.
These were the main motivations to decide on the topic of the given research. Therefore,
the subject of the research became Hotel Eden Roc and the research environment focuses
on marketing strategies for attracting wealthy tourists to the hotel, which the author learned
during the two years of studies and practice at the University.
Given the subject of the research as well as its environment, the following research aims,
research questions and tasks were put forward:
Aim of the research: To evaluate the attractiveness of Hotel Eden Roc for the Chinese
tourists and create strategies to attract this market.
Research questions:
1) What are the preferences and travel behaviour of wealthy Chinese tourists?
2) How attractive is Costa Brava region for the Chinese tourists?
3) What marketing strategies could be applied to attract Chinese tourists to Hotel Eden
Roc?
Research tasks:
1) to review the theoretical literature on tourists‘ motivation and reflect it to Chinese
tourists’ preferences and their travel behavior;
9
2) to identify the latest travel trends in Chinese outbound market;
3) to conduct a research on the tourist resources available in Costa Brava region;
4) to conduct a research on push and pull factors of the Chinese tourists visiting Spain
and the Costa Brava in particular
5) to identify the satisfaction level of Chinese tourists with services and amenities of Hotel
Eden Roc
6) to come up with strategies on attracting wealthy Chinese tourists to Hotel Eden Roc.
The author applied various methodologies in order to find the best fit for different
research tasks. Professional and academic literature were used for market situation analysis
aimed at determining the latest trends in Chinese outbound travel market as well as for
revealing the background literature on tourist motivation, their preferences and behavior.
The literature review identified a gap related to the lack of such studies in the context of the
Costa Brava. In order to fill the gap, the author applied structured survey method, which
consisted of four sections. Overall, 150 questionnaires, preliminarily translated into Chinese,
were distributed in four hotels in Sant Feliu de Guixols, the town where Hotel Eden Roc is
situated in the end of May, beginning of April. Due to the circumstances stated in the
methodology part of the given paper, the convenience sampling method was selected to
distribute the questionnaires. Out of 150 questionnaires, 98 were filled and returned, which
corresponded to 65% response rate. In order to support the quantitative data gathered
through the questionnaires with more qualitative data, it was decided to carry out additional
10 in-depth interviews with the tourists in Hotel Eden Roc. The interview questions list
consisted of 10 open-ended questions and were also conducted in Chinese language.
Finally, with the aim to identify the current interest as well as the potential involvement of
the hotel management in attracting Chinese tourists, it was decided to conduct a brief
telephone interview with Mr. Robert Sanchez, the General Manager of the hotel. The
interview included five open-ended questions.
Despite the fact that the hotel management fully supported the idea of conducting an
extensive research on Chinese tourist and provided necessary administrative resources, the
author believes that the given work has its limitations. Given that the research was
conducted starting from the beginning of this year until May, which is considered as the low
tourist season in the Costa Brava, the sampling method and its size were selected based
on the these circumstances. More accurate results could have been obtained if the research
was organized during the longer period (one year) that also included high tourist seasons.
10
1. MARKET SITUATION ANALYSIS
This chapter of the given thesis is dedicated to the analysis of findings that had been
done in the literature in order to understand the Chinese outbound tourism market,
particularly in Europe, its latest trends as well as the developments and future prospects.
Finally, Spain, as the current and potential travel destination for Chinese tourists, will be
looked closely and observed for the sake of understanding its current state and future
prospects. The market situation analysis is one of the important parts of the given master
thesis, because it sheds the light onto the subject of the research as well as creates the
starting point for building the right strategies and recommendation on how to attract Chinese
tourists to Costa Brava region, particularly to Hotel Eden Roc, where the author of the
current thesis have been having her internship.
1.1. Latest developments in Chinese outbound travel market
Tourists from China have been travelling outside of the country at an increasing
rate and in record numbers, especially during the last two decades. Already in the mid
1990s the UNWTO (2001:9) projected that by 2020 there will be more than 100 million
Chinese tourists travelling abroad. As we stepped into the new millennium, it became
clear that these numbers were heavily underestimated. As the latest statistics imply, the
market growth has been so enormous that this number will already be reached by 2015.
Looking back at the last couple of decades, the biggest and most affluent source
markets for tourists from Asian countries were Japan, South Korea or Hong Kong.
However, that is rapidly changing. Although it is believed that China’s travel industry is
yet in its infancy, because travel, as a commodity is still regarded as highly discretionary
expense, after upgrading homes and owning a car (Lui, Kuo, Fung, Jap, Hsu 2011:5).
The first historical milestone of 100 million Chinese travelling abroad was reached in
November 2014 outstripping the projected time-lapse by five years. Overall, it is estimated
that 2014 would end with figure of 107 million, which is almost 10% annual increase
compared to 2013 (TravelChinaGuide, 2014).
The Figure 1 graphically indicates how the market has been developing during the
last 20 years in terms of Chinese outbound departures and total expenditure. It is clear that
there is a relatively linear correlation between these two indicators until 2012, after which
the expenditure of the Chinese abroad has started to increase substantially. The world
financial crisis did not have a negative impact on the overall growth, though the rate has
slowed down between 2008 and 2009.
11
Figure 1. Trends in Chinese outbound travel market (UNWTO, 2012:43; TravelChinaGuide, 2014)
In terms of the international tourism expenditure, China, in comparison to other top
tourist source markets, has recently jumped to the first place overtaking traditionally leading
USA and Germany (UNWTO, 2012:44). The expected total expenditure in 2014 amounts to
a record high US$ 140 billion (TravelChinaGuide 2014). Due to the convenient economic
and social factors, which boosted the disposable income, created favourable conditions for
foreign travel and strong local currency, the Chinese spending abroad has multiplied by more
than tenfold since 2000, when it ranked 7th (UNWTO 2014:13). As indicated in Table 1, China
has far outpaced the next standing USA and Germany, which were once considered as the
biggest spenders in the world. This gap is expected to grow even more considerably and
Chinese economy continues to grow and Western economies stagnate.
Table 1
International Tourism Expenditure by top five countries for 2012-2013
(UNWTO, 2014:13)
Rank
International Tourism Expenditure (US$ billion)
2012 2013
1. China 102.0 128.6
2. USA 83.5 86.2
3. Germany 81.3 85.9
4. Russia Federation 42.8 53.5
5. United Kingdom 51.3 52.6
5 5 5 8 9 10 1217 20
29 31 3541
46 4857
73 83
98107
4 4 8 9 11 13 14 15 15 19 22 2430
3644
55
70
102
129140
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013
Chinese outbound travel (million) Expenditure (US$ billion)
12
The main patterns of this spending will be considered in the following chapter.
However, it is important to point out that expenditure per destination is not evenly split,
that is to say, the further the destination the higher the spending. In Europe, for example,
Chinese spend considerably more money in comparison to when they visit the
neighboring Asian country. This is mainly due to the average longer stay period and the
overall cost of living abroad (UNWTO, 2012).
It was also interesting to observe what countries are among the most popular for
the Chinese. The Table 2 clearly illustrates that.
Table 2
Top 20 outbound destinations for Chinese tourists (ChinaTravelGuide, 2014)
Destination Number of Chinese Mainland Tourists
Destination Number of Chinese Mainland Tourists
1. Hong Kong 5,370,884 11. United States 553,846
2. South Korea 3,546,921 12. Italy 497,453
3. Thailand 2,884,539 13. Vietnam 440,683
4. Taiwan 2,671,350 14. Switzerland 436,771
5. Macau 2,434,431 15. Australia 413,333
6. Japan 1,394,203 16. Germany 397,611
7. Singapore 990,159 17. Russia 354,065
8. Malaysia 677,836 18. United Kingdom
239,967
9. Indonesia 646,048 19. New Zealand 222,566
10. France 619,294 20. Philippines 218,010
As with majority of tourist source markets, the outbound travel from China directs
to, firstly, the neighboring destinations. According to this data, Asia, particularly South-
East Asian countries in 2014 received the majority of Chinese visitors, almost three-
fourth of the total trips. Europe was the second biggest destination with total 3.43 million
visitors, an increase of over 10% comparing to the previous years, followed by Africa
(2.69 million), which for the first time surpassed the America (2.63 million) in the
popularity.
It can be interesting to see, what internal and external factors played an important
role that lead to such phenomenon. This has been widely discussed in the literature
(UNWTO, 2012:17-30; WTCF, 2014:7; and others.). So, among the numerous factors
were named such things as continuing economic success of the country, demographic
shifts, legal factors allowing the population to freely travel, monetary issues related to
the depreciation of foreign currencies against Chinese Yuan and many others as
described below.
13
Economic development and spending power. China’s economic development has
been enormous. With the average annual growth rate of 9.7% since 1995 (Figure 2), its
economy could withstand such crisis as SARS or world financial crisis in 2008 and
confidently look at the future. Recently, China has overcome the USA, Japan and
Germany as the largest manufacturer and the exporter in the world (Morisson, 2014:17).
Figure 2. Chinese real GDP Growth: 1995-2013 (Morrison, 2014:4)
Because of to the growing international trade, relatively low inflation rate,
proactive fiscal policy related to government spending and taxation, as well as
appreciating Yuan against other major global currencies such as US dollar or Euro have
strengthened the China’s position in the global arena (UNWTO, 2012:7-14). This, in turn,
positively reflected on the income level of the household and respectively on the
purchasing power of the Chinese, which has been developing relatively fast during the
last decade. However, the gap in income levels between the wealthy and the middle
class remains very substantial. Atsmon and Magni (2012), in particular divide income
levels according to the three different categories. First, the “value”, the biggest group of
those, who have annual disposable income between 6 and 16 thousand USD, that are
just enough to cover basic needs. Second, the “mainstream” , a very small group of
people with relatively high disposable income (16 – 34 thousand USD), which currently
form around 14 million households. Finally, the smallest group of “affluent” consumers
with the income exceeding 34 thousand USD that only account for 2% of urban
population or 4.3 million households. If these small groups of people are shifting the
global trends in travel, one can only imagine what is expected in the future prospect
(read more about future prospects of Chinese outbound market further in this Chapter) .
development skills, special interest, prestige, glamour, respect
Self-actualization: understand self, fulfill a dream, inner
peace, harmony, absorbed in setting
25
more attention on external factors such as self-development through involvement
with host-site or nature, whereas those with low level are more into romance,
belonging or autonomy.
Probably one of the most prominent tourist motivation used across various
literature is push and pull factors. Shortly, the idea behind this theory is that
individuals are pushed to travel by their internal socio-psychological forces and are
pulled by external forces related to destination attributes (Bogari, Growether and
Marr, 2004:51-62). The authors identified seven push factors namely:
- Escape from perceived mundane environment
- Exploration and evaluation of self
- Relaxation
- Regression
- Enhancement of kinship relationship
- Facilitation of social interaction,
In addition to push factors, the following two pull factors were identified - novelty and
education. From the marketing standpoint of view this theory is useful in the sense
that pull factors can be controlled and tourism products can be adapted and promoted
to suite consumer preferences. Therefore, the image of a tourist destination plays a
vital role because it affects the person’s perception and influences his or her choice
a destination. In fact, some claim that image is more important than tangible
resources, perceptions are more powerful than reality and this is what motivates
people to act (Chen, 2010:123).
2.3. Cultural differences and application of theories
It has been argued that most of the research on tourist motivation is carried out
within the Western context, which mainly
reflect the important Western values such
as individualism or rationalism (Li,
2007:5). Geren (2011:2) implies, what
determines behaviour is not only
motivation. Behaviour is always motivated,
however, there are other determinants
such as biology, culture or a situation that
play a role, and that cultural values
determine the consumer preferences.
Human nature
Culture
Personality
Universal Inherited
Specific to group
or category Learned
Specific to
individual
Inherited and learned
Figure 9. Three levels of uniqueness in Mental Programming (Hosftede, Hosftede and Minkov, 2010:6)
26
Indeed, every person is unique. Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov (2010:6-7) identify three
levels that shape a human mentality, namely human nature, inherited genes, culture,
learned attributes, as well as, personality, partly inherited and partly learned (Figure 9).
Although, learning and understanding of all levels are important, for the purpose of the
given paper – attracting tourists from one specific country, thus cultural context rather
than an individual, comprehending the culture and its differences are vital because
culture is, first and foremost, a collective phenomenon. It is shared among people who
live in the same environment. It creates a collective mindset, which distinguish members
of one group from the others. Although there are over hundred definitions of culture,
most of them have something in common. Thus, it includes the knowledge, belief (such
as religion and ideologies), art, morals, law, customs values or artefacts, which are
acquired by an individual as a member of a certain society (Bowe and Martin, 2007:2).
Such values are transferred through distinguishing sources as family, media,
government, schools, religious establishments and others. In this way, cultural values
guide human’s perception, thus its action and behaviour (Quingxue, 2013:22). Cultural
environment of a person influences his/her motivation as a consumer, the way
information is processed and perceived. Such factors as age, social status, ethnicity,
families or friends affect person’s values and consequently, his/her decisions and
reasons for that decision (Hoyer, Maclnis and Pieters, 2012:10).
Given that, Chinese are the members of a culture, descent from that of European,
the differences are obvious. G. Hofstede (n.a.), one of the most prominent authors on
cultural differences, has made a comparative research across various cultures to identify
their disparities according to 5 dimensions – power distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism (collectivism), masculinity and long(short)-term orientation. The Table 5
illustrates such a comparison between China, an eastern culture and the USA, the
western culture.
Table 5
Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions scores for China and the USA (Hofstede, n.a.)
Dimensions China USA
1. Power distance: the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally
80 40
2. Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which a culture programmes its members to feel either uncomfortable of comfortable in unstructured situations and tries to control the uncontrollable
30 46
27
3. Individualism: the degree to which individuals are supposed to look after themselves or remain integrated into groups (Collectivism)
20 91
4. Masculinity: refers to distribution of emotional roles between the genders, it opposes “tough” masculinity to “tender” femininity
66 62
5. Long-term orientation: refers to the extent to which a culture programmes its members to accept delayed gratification of their material, social and emotional needs
87 26
Arlt (2006:41) has linked the scores of each dimension to the pattern of behaviour
of Chinese tourists. He particularly notes that China scores higher in four dimensions
out of five. For example, the reason why Chinese prefer learning within leisure or spend
more time on shopping to buy gifts to important persons at home is due to their long -
term orientation. Likewise, the fact that Chinese exercise higher power distance, makes
them to be led in the group and see firstly the most important sightseeing, have high
expectations to the tour guide, as the person of authority . Because of their high level of
collectivism compared to western societies, Chinese have a more group-oriented
behaviour. They give high importance to the group harmony, relationships and roles
within it, as well as their wish to go to places visited by others, do typical things and buy
typical souvenirs. Chinese especially attach a great importance to status, when it comes
to the consumption and this is significantly different from that of in Western nations. This
author identified six values that play an important role in Chinese culture, which are
similar to the findings of Hofstede: respect to authority, interdependence, face, group
orientation, harmony and superstition. However, he notes that especially the concept of
“face” is difficult to understand for western mentality. Apart from escaping humiliation
and sense of shame, it also refers to prestige that is acquired through wealth and social
status. Interdependence, on the other hand is seen as taking care of the loved ones as
a social investment and expect the favour to be returned.
However, a number of research has found that Maslow’s theory is not always
applicable across cultures. Chinese, who are typically collectivists focus more on social
and esteem needs rather than personal or self-actualization. Likely, some widely
accepted travel motives as self-actualization reviewed above are not appropriate for
collectivist societies, which might have different push and pull factors. For example,
according to studies conducted by Bogari, Growether and Marr (2004:53) on Mainland
Chinese tourists, the results were different from others revealing that knowledge and
high-tech image are the most vital push and pull factors.
28
2.4. Characteristics and consumer behaviour of Chinese tourists
It is quite usual to consider China as a homogeneous country and treat it as a
single market for business operations. However, although it is one nation, differences
existing within this nation can have substantial effect on demand pattern. Such
differences can be related to cultural, geographical or demographical aspects. For this
reason, it is not easy to identify the common characteristics of Chinese tourists ;
principally their push factors to visit a certain destination are defined according to
demographic, lifestyle or income groups. Nonetheless, the given sector gives a summary
of main findings about the general characteristics of tourists , particularly wealthy. These
trends are gathered from professional sources such as Hurung Report, UNWTO,
Hotels.com and other publications. In order to give clear characteristics to what Chinese
wealthy traveller is, it is vital to define their demographical patterns, consumption
behaviour, travel related consumptions as well as the new emerging trends.
2.4.1 The Demographics
The demographic factors in relation to gender of wealthy Chinese is significantly
different from that of other groups. Whereas the male/female ration of the middle class
travelling abroad has almost equalled during the last decade (43.9% women and 56.1%
men), men considerably dominate in the
wealthy class (Nasolomampionona,
2014:20). Thus, according to research
done by PATA China Office and COTRI
(2013:5), the number of wealthy men are
more than double than that of women
(70% against 30% respectively). As both
sources confirm, the average age of
travellers in both rich and middle class is
around 40 years, which is at the same
time comprise the biggest segment. For
example, wealthy Chinese from 31 to 50 years old encompass in total 80% of the group
followed by people over 51 (see Figure 10).
Hurun Research Institute (2014:5-8) identifies two segments of the rich travelers
namely Dollar Millionaires (average annual income 0.5 million) and Chinese super-rich
(average annual income over 5 million). These are people with average age of 39 years,
14%
40%
40%
6%
51 years and above
51-50 years
31-40 years
20-30 years
Figure 10. Age groups of wealthy Chinese
(PATA China Office and COTRI, 2013:3)
29
mainly men (60% and 70% respectively). Most of the tourists come from Southern and
Eastern provinces, or first tier cities such as Shanghai (31%), Guangzhou, Beijing (25%)
or Shenzhen. In terms of their occupations, middle class and upper class Chinese differ
considerable as well. Thus, the majority of middle class are middle and senior corporate
managers (58%), followed by entrepreneurs (22%), freelancers (14%) and others. As for
two groups of the elite class Chinese, the main occupation of Dollar Millionaires are
private business owners (50%), stock market investors (15%), real estate investors
(15%) and executives (20%). Among Chinese super-rich the predominant occupation is
private business owner (80%). Family values play an important role in Chinese culture,
especially given that it is considered as the reflection of person’s high status, prosperity
and success. This explains the high proportion of married wealthy Chinese (82%) with
one or more children.
2.4.2 The Lifestyle
Among the most popular activities that the rich engage themselves into remains
travel and tourism as for the last decade. All the literature sources agree that travel is
the principal sector in which they spend their money. Reading and tea tasting are the
second preferred activity followed by family life and driving. Among other popular daily
consumptions are sports, entertainment, wine tasting and photography. As for gender
differences in particular, woman millionaires spend more on luxury goods that they use
in their everyday life, whereas men spend more on entertainment and gifts for others.
However, the recent tendencies show diversifying interests among Chinese wealthy
population in selecting their leisure activities (Hurun Research Institute, 2014:9).
A healthy lifestyle and sports are becoming new important trend, which are
performed both at home as well as abroad during the travel. Swimming (35% and 41%
for male and female respectively) is regarded as the most popular physical exercise for
the rich, which recently overtook golfing. Women prefer yoga more than men, while me
are more into physical activities such as mountaineering or horse riding. Other favourite
sports are tennis, badminton, driving and jogging.
As for the media usage, almost 100 percent of the wealthy Chinese use internet
as well as magazines as the most preferred form of media. The average use of internet
is 6.5 days a week, mostly for viewing microblogs (weibo), social media sites such as
WeChat and information browsing. The popularity of television is declining steadily giving
up to media websites. As travel became major leisure activity for the Chinese, most of
the media channels include articles or dedicate the whole sections to this topic. High -
30
end magazines provide more personalized information about unique destinations and
activities compared to mass media articles (UNWTO, 2012:75). Interestingly, they use
various sources of information such as travel guides, online blogs or from family
members and friends. However, when it comes to the travel motivation, the family advice
and friend referrals are considered as the biggest and the most liable source of
information followed by the offers from travel agencies (Hurun Report, 2014:23;
Hotels.com, 2014:31). As for the further information gathering, Chinese domestic tourism
websites and consulting with local travel agencies or their websites are ranking the top
(PATA China Office and COTRI, 2014:9).
2.4.3 Travel consumption.
As suggested by Hotels.com (2014:25), Chinese take into account a wide range
of factors when making a decision
about where to go abroad next time.
According to Figure 11, safety
appears to be the most important
concern, which is growing rapidly. It
can put them completely off booking
the trip. Availability of historical and
heritage sights are the second most
significant pull factor influencing their
decisions, followed by cuisine,
shopping and the reputation of
destination. In comparison to middle
class Chinese, the rich prefer
shopping opportunities at the first
place (60%), beaches (40%), local
cuisine and wine (36%) as well as the
culture are next important motivations to travel (Hurun Research Institute, 2014:15). As
for the push factors, sightseeing remains as the primary purpose to travel for both middle
and upper classes of Chinese. Similarities here end. Shopping and business are the next
important motivations to go abroad for the wealthy class, whereas for middle class, it is
leisure and vacation. In terms of spending according to activities during the trip, for
shopping Chinese allocate more than a half of their budget (52%-58%), while for
sightseeing (18%) and food they spend three times less (14%) (Hotels.com, 2014:29;
WTCF, 2014:14). China accounts for 27% of the total global spending on tax free
12%
15%
16%
16%
17%
23%
29%
37%
48%
Local events
Quality of accommodation
Climate/weather
Ease of visa application
Reputation
Shopping
Cuisine
Historical and heritage sights
Safety
Figure 11. Most important factors for Chinese
tourists when choosing the next international
travel destination (Hotels.com, 2014:26)
31
shopping. It also shows the fastest growing tendencies with average annual growth of
25%, and the widening expenditure per trip as compared to other nations (WCRD,
2013:36). Their mostly beloved places to shop are specialty stores and retail brands as
well as department stores. As it was reviewed above, families and power distance are
amid the most important values for Chinese. Caring about their beloved ones and
keeping a good relationship with their colleagues and bosses at work is vital. For this
reason, gifting has become a part of their everyday life. In fact, this is what drives
Chinese to travel for shopping. Among favourite purchased items are fashion and
apparel, jewellery and watches. However, the shopping preferences differ according to
gender and age. For example, when the mostly purchased gifts for men are red wine,
watches and spirits, women prefer jewellery and clothing, whereas elderly prefer health
and travel products as well as housing goods (Hurun Report, 2014:17).
China has in overall 11 days of national holidays per year. Nevertheless, most of
the wealthy class takes stable 20 days of leave during which they perform various
activities including travel. For some, annual holidays can be more than 30 days. Majority
of them tend to travel abroad 1-2 (31%) or 3-5 (28%) times a year and spend from 5 to
8 nights (58%). This number is even bigger for long-haul destinations as Europe (Hurun
Report 2014:16; 2014:13-14; WTCF, 2014:13). For instance, the studies suggest that in
2013 wealthy tourists travelled on average 4 times a year on average 18 days per trip,
mostly for a purpose of leisure mainly to Europe and the USA. The main period of travel
are two important national holidays, so-called Golden Weeks –the Chinese New Year
and the National Day Holiday, therefore, January and February are the most intensively
travelled period (Nasolomampionona, 2014:20). However, for the upper class Chinese
holidays are not the most frequent time for travel as the majority choose to travel
irregular times or during the annual leaves. For this reason, it is quite hard to identify
the seasonality of wealthy Chinese and found out their preferred period of the year to
travel. On the other hand, the studies indicate that they tend to make decision to travel
and book tourism products at any time when they see the right product that can drive
their attention (PATA China Office and COTRI, 2014:7). But overall Chinese are
regarded as more spontaneous and can make holiday bookings only few days in
advance, which cannot be said about their average European counterparts, who plan
holidays long time before.
Being a collectivistic society, Chinese usually prefer to travel in groups. Outbound
tours are still dominated by group package tours. A visit to Europe, for example, would
normally consist of visiting five countries in 10 days. The program includes the stay in
hotels, eating Chinese food and passing by through the main sights as quickly as
possible in order to allocate more time on shopping luxury consumer goods in outlet
32
malls (Trivet and Staff, 2013:4). Unlike middle class Chinese who travel in large groups,
the upper class tends to travel in small-size groups and with people they know. For
instance, middle class tourists travel in groups of average 30.5 people, whereas groups
of the rich in average consists of only 8.3 people. About the half travel with their spouse
and children or other family members. Only inconsiderable amount travel alone (Hurun
Report 2014:14; UNWTO, 2012:65-66). Some sources suggest that the rich, first of all,
prefer to travel with their loved ones, followed by friends, children and parents (PATA
China Office and COTRI, 2014:7). For example, prove that dominating number of
millionaires (80%) choose to travel out of large groups. The average number of
companions travelling together was four, majority of which were family members.
Chinese tourists have specific consumer behaviour pattern in relation to hotels.
When choosing a hotel, star-rating, facilities as well as comfort are the main attributes
to be considered. Brand or reputation has little less importance value so as the price of
accommodation. The most favourite hotel categories are international brand luxury
hotels (54%), boutique hotels (31%), top level resorts (20%) or private estates (13 %)
(PATA China Office and COTRI, 2014:11). Particularly, among the facilities and services
in hotels, provision of food whether in the room or a restaurant , is believed to be vital.
Other amenities include business centre, on-site shop and sports facilities such as
swimming pool or gym (Hotels.com, 2014:18). There are also Chinese-specific products
and services that are most important during the international trips. These are free WI-FI,
acceptance of Chinese payment systems such as Union Pay or Alipay, the availability o f
Mandarin-speaking staff, travel guides translated to Chinese language and others. When
it comes to hotel reservation, the most preferred method is the third party online hotel
booking engines. This reflects the fact that China has become the country with world’s
largest number of internet users. It internet penetration in the country has reached 618
million users in 2014, which represents only 50% of its population. 80% of internet users
access it through mobile devices, which are now making more and more online
purchases including the hotel reservations via web or using mobile apps (WCRD,
2013:44; Hotels.com, 2014:31). Another method, but at the same time declining in
popularity is travel agencies, which is mostly preferred by older travellers. However,
given that China’s population is expected to age in the foreseeable future, travel
agencies will remain a profitable form of business in the country.
When Chinese experience a pleasant trip during their overseas travel, they are
more likely to revisit the destination and spread a positive word of mouth, a study by
WTCF (2014:21) shows. Indeed, almost 75% of those satisfied from their trips have high
intensions to revisit. This percentage is even higher for tourists travelled to European
and US cities, individuals with high monthly income as well as independent travellers.
33
Moreover, almost 90% of satisfied Chinese have considerable intensions to recommend
the destinations to their friends and relatives, the same study reports. As reviewed
above, recommendations and referrals from families and friends is the most important
motivational factor for Chinese to choose their next tourism destination. Therefore, the
word of mouth is especially strong marketing tool in Chinese culture.
2.4.4 New trends in Chinese travelling pattern
Despite having a strong cultural influence that affect their consumption patterns,
Chinese travellers are changing as well. Probably one of the most discussed shift is the
increasing number of independent travellers. The myth that Chinese travel only in groups
has been busted. According to the survey conducted by Hotels.com (2014:36), 67% of
respondents are now aiming to make their own travel arrangements. This trend is
especially strong among young generation. 81% of those under 35 prefer to travel
independently as compared to older generations (52% for those over 35). Similar finding
were discovered by Oxford Economics (2015:18), when almost two third of respondents
said they would rather travel alone, half of them are ready to bypass travel agents and
make reservations by themselves. WCRD (2013:30) suggests a number of possible
explanations to this phenomenon. The first time travellers are more likely to travel in
groups to an unknown destination be secure. However, as the travellers climbs up the
travel ladder and gains more travel experience, he/she is likely to demand more interest -
specific and comprehensive itinerary than a standard sightseeing and shopping tours.
Secondly, this could also be related to the growing dissatisfaction with products and
services offered to a mass market, especially this is so for the affluent Chinese during
their package holidays to long-haul destinations because they are at least three time
more dissatisfied with the group tours, particularly with tour guides experience and
services, as well as meals.
Therefore, travelling independently became a widespread among financially
independent class of the Chinese. Indeed, studies by Hotels.com, 2014:36; Trivet and
Staff, 2013:5) illustrate that such tourists tend to be on average wealthier and have
higher daily expenditure than those travelling in groups. They are likely to stay in average
longer in a single destination to explore more and gain in-depth experience of a host
culture. Such tourists, apart from being richer, are more younger (between 25 and 45),
more educated (with at least bachelor degrees), more experienced at their mid or upper
travel ladder, tech-savvy and connected looking for independent source of information
and reviews through social media platforms or specialized travel blogs, have higher
34
expectation and demand high quality service. They are more likely to visit uncommon
destinations and experience niche tours, which arise from their interests-specific
hobbies. In such a way, they tend to express their individuality to stand out from their
surrounding circle. At the same time, this might imply the shift in the cultural values of
the Chinese in overall (from the author).
In relation to the growing interest in interest-specific holidays, Hurun Research
Institute (2014:22) identified key trends among the Chinese super rich. Particularly, the
survey illustrated a growing interest in island holidays (59%) and self -drive (43%). Food
and shopping became a little less important. Among other caprice that are gaining
popularity are outdoor activities such as nature adventure, trekking or mountain climbing,
and romantic cruises.
35
3. MARKETING PRACTICES FROM OTHER DESTINATIONS
ATTRACTING CHINESE TOURISTS
The previous chapters, the author of the given thesis has analysed the recent
trends in the Chinese outbound travel market, in particular it was revealed that tourists
from China are travelling more to various countries including long-haul destinations such
as Europe. Some countries received more Chinese tourists than others. Moreover, the
profile of such tourists, their demographic and cultural factors, consumption behaviour
as well as different push factors were identified. This chapter, however, will look more
closely at pull factor, that is what actions other destinations undertake in order to attract
Chinese travellers. First of all, it will reveal the various attractive factors that are
considered as most important. Secondly, examples of marketing activities at the
institutional level are described, i.e. what National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) of
different countries do to promote their destinations in Chinese markets. Thirdly, how
single business units such as hotels adapt to suit the needs and preferences of such
tourist will be reviewed.
3.1. Country initiatives in attracting Chinese tourists
Previously, it was found out that Chinese are mostly attracted to safety, history
and culture as well as shopping opportunities as the most decisive factors to travel.
However, from the point of view of destinations, there are three main elements that make
up the successful destination. The survey by WCRD (2013:40) among thirteen European
destinations revealed that direct flight connections, available information in Chinese
language and hassle-free visa processes are ranked as the most important factors by
majority of respondents. This corresponds to previous studies by WTCF (2014:18).
According to it, more than two-third of Chinese consider easier and faster visa granting,
free visa or visa on arrival as a very positive influence on their decision to visit the
destination. Since 2009 Switzerland, for example, received a record high number of
Chinese due to the country’s entry into the Schengen zone. Tourists no longer need to
apply for a separate visa to enter Switzerland. In overall, due to Schengen visa travellers
can have a holiday across several destinations in Europe per single visit (UNWTO,
2012:19).
Majority also believe that the availability of direct flights, cruises or trains are
important due to the easier and stress-free access to the country of visit. Germany, on
the other hand, realizing the potential of direct transportation links from China, greatly
36
benefits having the highest amount of direct flights in Europe. This makes the country
as the first stop for the travellers during their multi-destination trips to Europe not only
in terms of leisure but also business. Language barriers are among the mostly
encountered problems during their overseas trips. In restaurants, the majority of
complaints were related to the lack of menus in Chinese language and inability of service
personnel to speak the language. In hotels, the biggest obstacles were the absence of
signs in Chinese language or TV channels in the rooms. The similar problems were
encountered with local and regional transportation, during the touring and shopping
(WTCF 2014:15).
Dr. Latham (2011:22) once said “…just how many of them (Chinese – from the
author) will come to Europe will depend in no small part on what action European
governments, the tourist industries and supporting retail and service sectors do to attract
Chinese visitors in the future”. In comparison to push factors that are related to Chinese
inner values and cannot be influenced by the third parties, pull factors are equally
important and in fact those that can be used to affect tourist’s decision through various
government initiatives and marketing activities.
3.1.1 Visa formalities
European destinations are trying to ease down the legal barriers to attract more
tourists. France as the most popular destination in Europe with over one million annual
arrivals from China alone, for example, reduced the time to get the visa from twelve to
two days. This has already increased the visa demand for 40% and officials expect the
inflow of between three to five million visitors in the nearest future. New Zealand starting
from 2013 allowed Chinese to extend their multi-entry visit visa. Thus, if a tourist returns
within two years, he/she does not have to undergo the whole visa application process
repeatedly. UK government, on the other hand recently announced its plans to simplify
the visa process for travellers from China. According to it, the carefully selected Chinese
travel agents will be allowed to apply for UK visa using the Schengen application form .
Moreover, those already having an Irish visa will also be permitted to enter UK without
filling out the additional application forms. In the future, it is also planned to bring so-
called “super priority” visa into force, which entails the services for the VIP tourists to be
issued within 24 hours. Italy now allows Chinese to apply visa in the nearest consulates
general and Italian Embassy in Beijing. Previously, tourists had to Italian representation
located in the area of their household registration. This was especially positively received
by those people, who work in the cities but have their household registration somewhere
37
else. Such government actions can be witnessed elsewhere in the world and can be
regarded as a sign of high competition among destinations for the outbound travel market
share of China (Hotels.com, 2014:41-56).
3.1.2 Representations in China.
The main objectives of National Tourism Offices’ (NTOs) representations
overseas is to conduct marketing and promotion campaign in the foreign market, act as
a tourism information centre as well as collaborate between national and foreign tourism
entities at the business level. The location depends on market sales and the potential
market growth (Polachart 2010:23). According to UNWTO (2012:73) there were more
than 20 NTOs along with city tourist representative offices established in China. Opening
an office itself is a difficult and costly process. That is the reason why majority of tourist
representations are presented through their embassies, consulates or even national
airlines.
Examples of selected NTOs and their activities in China:
Germany. GNTB (2014:14) has overall 30 representative offices worldwide,
including regional management offices, overseas representatives, marketing and sales
as well as PR agencies. USA and China are the only countries with more than one
offices, which emphasize the importance of these markets for Germany’s inbound
tourism. Particularly in China, there are two regional management offices : Beijing and
Hong Kong. Its primary activities include:
- Presentation of Germany as a tourist destination at the international B2B and B2C
trade fairs in China;
- Networking events at the workshops and roadshows;
- Organization of GTM Germany Travel Mart, the biggest travel trade show for
Germany’s incoming tourism industry;
- Partner management programs;
- Organization of familiarization trips for Chinese travel professionals and media
representatives.
Czech Republic. Czech Tourism Authority has in total 21 foreign offices mainly
located in Europe. China, Brazil and the USA are the only countries outside of Europe.
Czech Tourism offices are located both in Beijing and Shanghai, and it is represented in
Hong Kong as (Czech Tourism, n.a.). The main tasks of the offices is to promote tourism
38
potential of Czech Republic, create brand awareness and stimulate the growth of tourist
arrivals from China through the following tools:
- Campaigns (online, print and outdoor);
- Press and familiarization trips;
- Road shows;
- Participation in the biggest travel trade fairs;
- Presentations and workshops;
- Establishing business contacts with strategic partners .
Spain. Spanish Tourism Office is represented in 33 offices abroad across eight
geographical areas. Unlike, Germany and Czech Republic its Chinese offices are opened
in Beijing and Guangzhou, based on the Embassy and consulate of the Spain (Spain
Tourism, n.a.). Guangzhou, as reviewed above, is the third largest source market for
outbound tourists in China, which might imply Spain’s regional focus.
The marketing activities of NTOs abroad are usually similar to each other and can
only differ according to the content and peculiarities of the destinations.
3.1.3 Marketing campaigns and other activities
The research findings by WTCF (2014:5) illustrate that Chinese become more involved
in international travel exhibitions, various public tourism promotions and campaign. Such
campaigns can include special promotions, seasonal promotions or inviting famous
stars.
Countries initiate special marketing campaigns specifically adjusted to Chinese
environment and aligned with its general strategy. For example, Tourism New Zealand
launched so-called Premier Kiwi Partnership (PKP) program in 2013 in cooperation with
11 inbound operators as well as 18 Chinese travel agencies. According to the program,
five most popular Chinese celebrities were to share their travel and holiday stories, which
they experienced in New Zealand and encourage tourists to “travel like a star”.
Celebrities were chosen from different areas such as biggest entertainment portal editor,
TV celebrity, fashion designer or a music producer so that they share experiences in
adventure, food, romance and relaxation (Tourism New Zealand, n.a.). Germany, on the
other hand, carries out different theme campaign to promote itself as a travel destination
that are targeted to specific market segment (GNTB, n.a.). Each year the focus is placed
on specific aspect of general “Travel Destination Germany” brand. For instance, the main
theme in 2015 is “Traditions and customs”, whereas in 2014 it was “Germany reunified.
39
25 year on” dedicated to the anniversary of Germany’s reunification. Particularly for
China, campaign named “Family Holidays in Germany” targeted to drive traditional family
holidaymakers from China (COTRP, 2006:16). Slovakia runs two promotional
campaigns. First, joint-promotion with other European countries – Czech Republic,
Hungary and Poland. With the brand European Quartet the campaign target USA,
Russian, Japanese, Brazilian and Chinese markets, which involves such activities as
participation in trade fairs, website promotion – www.european-quartet.com, brochures,
study trips and others. With the help of similar activities, Slovak Tourist Board promotes
its destination as “Slovakia – little big country” brand.
Among marketing tools, tourism boards employ, first of all, various traditional
channels varying from distributing newsletters and print materials to trade fairs and
familiarization trips. The priority efforts are targeted mainly to B2B campaigns in order
to attract industry partners at both institutional and business levels. Most of the
destinations print materials that are translated into Chinese and distribute them either in
destination cities, through local representations in China or via mailing to travel agencies
in China. Likewise, the majority of institutions started to employ an in-house Chinese
experts, whose main responsibility apart from knowledge of language and culture, also
include PR and media contacts as well as digital media. Indeed, digital media and
particularly website are becoming widely used for promotional purposes, especially in
China. Given the importance of this market, Chinese version of the official destination
websites became available almost across all countries, reviewed by the author:
Germany - http://www.germany.travel/cn/index.html
France - http://cn.rendezvousenfrance.com/zh-hans
European Quartet - http://european-quartet.com/?lang=zh-CN
Slovakia - http://slovakia.travel/en (not available in Chinese)
The average temperature in the winter goes down to 8°C and rarely below 0°C but
snow can be witnessed in the high elevations of the Pyrenees. Due to strong, cold winds
and often heavy rains, this is probably not the most attractive period to visit the Costa
Brava. However, such climatic conditions in the Mediterranean can offer great
opportunity for family holidays. Tourists can still enjoy cities, heritage sights and
museums without the summer heat and tourist crowds. It is also great time for adventure
sports such as hiking, trekking or cycling.
In spring days become longer, the average temperature gradually increases, the
nature blooms. The rainfall frequency in April and May increases dramatically. This is
perhaps the most beautiful period of the year to visit the Costa Brava, therefore, makes
a favourite holiday time for honeymooners and romantic couples. Besides, natural parks
become and incredible attraction for seeing nature and wildlife with the opportunities to
engage into walking, cycling or kayaking.
5.2. Sightseeing
The counties of Girona belong to the areas with one of the highest number of natural
and heritage attractions per square kilometre in Spain.
5.2.1. Natural sights
Virtually one third of the Costa Brava is covered by natural protected area with
beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, botanical gardens coastal areas as well as ancient
volcanoes. There are seven beautiful natural parks in the region, each of which are
unique in their nature (see Table 11). Six of them are located within 100 km distance
from Hotel Eden Roc that can bring a number of advantages in terms of its location and
product offer.
Table 11
Natural Parks of Costa Brava and their proximity to Hotel Eden Roc
Natural Parks Distance
from Hotel Eden Roc
Short description
Cadí-Moixeró 182 km
It is the largest Natural Park in Catalonia and one of the richest in terms of varieties in flora and fauna. It includes relief, mountain ranges and massif.
53
Cap de Creus 107 km
Being an Iberian Peninsula on the North of the Costa Brava, there is a wild coastline with beautiful cliffs and hidden coves, and at the same time forests and meadows.
Montseny Natural Park 75 km
Located in the South of the Costa Brava, it is the largest and highest massif of Catalan mountain range. Due to this fact, there are an extreme number of environment varieties – diversity of vegetation makes a unique forest landscape and a refuge for many animals.
Paratge Natural d’Interès Nacional de l’Albera
97 km
The landscape represents one of the largest concentration of megalithic monuments in Catalonia. Combined with rich flora and fauna it creates a favourite place to visit for adventurous tourists.
Parc Natural del Montgrí, Illes Medes i Baix Ter
55 km
Located between two bays, Roses and Ter, the Natural Park offers interesting ecological diversity. It is unique in the sense that most of its area is wild and inhospitable to human.
The Natural Park of the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà
75 km It is the second largest park in Catalonia and likewise has a large species of flora and fauna.
Volcanic Area of the Garrotxa Region
87 km
Volcanic Park is one the most important protected areas in Girona. Attracting over million of visitors a year, it offers variety of sightseeing spots such as Croscat volcano or La Fageda d’en Jorda beech forest.
Apart from main Natural Parks, there are four botanical gardens in the Costa Brava
namely, Cap Roig Gardens, Marimurtra Botanical Gerden, Piya de Rosa Botanical
Gerden and Santa Clotilde Gardens, where along with variety of plants, one can find
indigenous plants, which grow only in these specific areas and at the same time, enjoy
the breath-taking views of the Mediterranean. In addition to this, there are eighteen so-
called “coastal footpaths” that offer wonderful experience of beautiful beaches and
coastal rocks on one side, and hilly scenery with green of the pine trees. One of such
footpaths are located in Sant Feliu de Guixols along the shores of Hotel Eden Roc.
The coast of the Costa Brava stretches along 300 over kilometres of coastline and
therefore, one of the major sun, sea and sand type of tourism destination, popular among
local and foreign tourists. There are almost 130 beaches with various width and lengths,
as well as sand types, and nearly 100 coves along the shoreline. At Sant Feliu de Guixols
close to Hotel Eden Roc, in particular there are five beaches (Table) and seven coves.
54
Table 12
Beaches at Sant Feliu de Guixols
Beaches Characteristics
Platja de Can Dell Width: 10 m Length: 250 m Type: wild rocky beach
Platja de Canyerets Width: 18 m Length: 180 m Type: urban coarse sand beach
Platja de Sant Feliu Width: 53 m Length: 460 m Type: urban coarse sand beach
Located in the heart of the town, this is the major beach of Sant
Feliu de Guixols. The beach is suitable for couples, families and
individual tourists.
Platja de Sant Pol Width: 52 m Length: 700 m Type: residential fine sand beach
Located between two towns, this beach resort is famous for its
wooden bathing houses.
Port Salvi Width: 20 m Length: 100 m Type: rocky beach
Located on the shorelines of Hotel Eden Roc, this is a small rocky
beach in the Port Salvi.
5.2.2. Cultural and Heritage sights
The history of the Costa Brava can be traced back to Palaeolithic Age. Followed by
periods of Iberian, Greek or Roman civilizations, as well as Middle Ages, the region
possesses a unique combination of cultural and heritage sights. The following resources
related to regions culture and heritage are available:
There are over 30 historically significant castles and fortresses spread across the
Costa Brava, each reflecting a centuries-long history of events in the region, the times
when it used to be the frontier between Christian and Arab worlds, and saw the reign
of medieval kingdoms. Each object is unique in its nature preserved unt il today either
with intact walls, ruins or hidden in the vegetation. Castle Calonge (appr. 15 km), a
XI-th century castle nowadays serving for Music Festival, Castle of Sant Joan (appr. 39
km), an XI-th century castle on the top mountain formerly known as Forcadel as well as Villa
Vella walled town (appr. 34 km), an XII-th century fortified medieval town are the closest
heritage sights located to Hotel Eden Roc.
Apart from main picturesque castles and fortresses, the history of the region, once
being made of small independent counties, inherited a number of fascinating walled
medieval towns, churches, squares and other objects of interest, which has great
55
historical and artistic values and visited by millions of tourists each year. With more
around 25 historical towns and complexes, the Costa Brava gains advantage in terms
of offering combination of holidays. Being one of such towns, Sant Feliu de Guixols is
surrounded by a large number of other neighbouring towns and sights such as Tossa
de Mar, S’Agaro, Castell-Platja d’Aro or Bell-Lloc, which can be reached within half
an hour drive. Moreover, most of the monasteries and churches scattered across the
region are the true arts of Romanesque architecture that reflect a rich history of
Catalonia. There are almost 30 registered sights of such values, one of which, the
Monastery of Sant Feliu de Guixols is located in the town of Hotel Eden Roc.
Other important elements of Catalonian heritage are the remnants of ancient
civilizations, which count back thousands of years in time. 24 archaeological sights of
megalithic culture, caves of early ages, ancient Iberian settlements as well as
extraordinary Greek-Roman archaeological remains enrich the overall tourism
potential of the Costa Brava. In contrast to ancient monuments, the modernist
architecture and decorative arts of the beginning of XX-th century can also be
witnessed in the counties of Girona. This can be found at 12 various spots that attract
much of tourists’ attention. Such monuments nowadays serve as public buildings or
private residences. Sant Feliu de Guixols towns is one of the most well -known towns
of such architecture. Casino La Constancia (also known as Casino del Nois), city
Cemetry or Sant Pol Modernist House are particularly attract the fans of such art.
5.2.3. Museums
Having rich historical and cultural heritage, Girona Pyrenee and particularly Costa
Brava makes it a great destination for education and enlightenment, art and science .
Museums and galleries offer a unique experience in variety of areas. The following
resources are available:
Eighteen art museums scattered around the counties of Girona, which depict
works of art in a wide range of subjects starting from photography and painting
ending with sculptures and icons. These arts reflect the whole history of the region
encompassing such periods as pre-Romanesque, modernism, avant-grades of
XX-th century as well as modern times. In Sant Feliu de Guixols there is a
prominent and the leading art centre for temporary exhibitions, Espai Carmen
Thyssen.
There are six archaeological museums, two of which, Archaeology Museums of
Catalonia-Empuries as well as Catalonia-Ullastret, are located under the open air.
Such museums display the remnants of megalithic monuments, ancient Greco-
56
Roman and Iberian settlements well preserved until today. Additionally, in thirteen
history museums one can witness the heritage of various events in Catalonian
history, Spanish Sivil War, feudal wars, invasion of the French army and others.
Two of such museums are located in the town of Hotel Eden Roc. Ten ethnological
museums, on the other hand, will give more insight into how ancestors of Girona
lived in different periods, their social system, routine life or beliefs.
If one wishes to combine fun with educational way of experiencing and learning
culture and heritage of the region, there are ten interpretational centres available
at disposal. This is a great way to entertainment not only for the adults but also
an amazing experience for the whole family. Interpretational centres offer wide
range of topics from industrial old water towers in Can Mario to religious Sana
Maria Monastery in Rippol.
Ten thematic science and technology museums in the Costa Brava are another
exciting way to bring time together for the whole family. Cork and pottery
museums, volcano and flour mill museums, eco-museum and others could be a
favourite spots for visitors with kinds.
5.3. Activities
Clearly, due to the availability of scenic costs, sandy beaches and warm sea, the
Costa Brava is, first of all, associated with water related leisure activities. However, the
results of the research have revealed that there are plenty of other activities that one
can engage into to drag oneself from the beach.
5.3.1. Golfing
The Costa Brava has relatively recently started to develop infrastructure for golf
tourism. Due to the region’s climatic conditions, scenic nature as well as rich heritage,
golfing became an increasingly popular activity among foreign and local tourists.
Nowadays, there are over ten golf courses in the Costa Brava, eight of which are among
Europe’s best top courses, accommodating several world-class tournaments (Table 13).
57
Table 13
Eight major golf courses in the Costa Brava
Golf Course Distance
from Hotel Eden Roc
Characteristics
Club de Golf Costa Brava
7.4 km
Founded in 1962, it is the oldest golf course on the coasts of the Costa Brava, which has recently been expanded. There are 27-holes (18 and 9 holes for each course). It hosts five major local tournaments.
Club de Golf Peralada
86 km
Opened in 1993, the course offers 18 holes and services for international competitions at all levels. By providing an infrastructure such as accommodation, casino, wine cellar and spas, the course hosted some of major international events as BMW Golf Cup.
Club Golf d’Aro-Mas Nou
15 km
Located within the Natural Park more than 300 meters above the sea level, the course offers a scenic views over the region apart from 18-hole premises. It is suited for both experienced and inexperienced golfers, as well as training opportunities for amateurs.
Emporda Golf Resort
38 km The golf course consists of two 18-hole courses, one of which is located among the dunes and lakes. It is awarded as one of worlds top 100 golf courses.
Golf Girona 47 km
The only golf course in Spain sown with Penncross, the highest-quality grass for golf, offers 18-hole tournaments and an excellent location in terms of proximity to major cities as Girona and Barcelona.
Golf Platja de Pals 38 km
An 18-hole European top 100 best golf course is located in the close proximity to the sea and offers a stunning setting. It hosted the major PGA tournaments as well as smaller amateur championships.
PGA Catalunya Golf 38 km Made of two 18-hole golf courses, it hosted the major international events such as Spain Open or Sarazen World Open. There is a 4-star hotel next to it.
Torremirona Golf Club
80 km
An 18-hole golf course is ideally suited for amateur and mid-level players. The course owns a hotel and several apartments available for rent. There were small local and international tournaments organized annually.
Apart from the major golf clubs, there are other five smaller-sized premises (9 holes),
which also offer high quality services and activities for beginners and amateur golf
players. In addition to that, around 30 accommodation premises including hotels or
apartments, which offer customized services for golfing activities. Having located close
to major golf courses such accommodations provide various services, from
transportation to full package golf holidays for individuals and groups. Hotel Eden Roc
is one of such renowned hotels specialized in golf and congress holidays, apart from
leisure and relaxation.
58
5.3.2. Wine tourism
Empordia region of the Costa Brava has deep traditions in wine growing, which is
dated back in Roman times. Nowadays, this is the most promising region for making a
high quality wine not only in Catalonia but also in the whole Spain. Historically, it is well
known for producing rose, but red and white wines account for the biggest volume of
production today. The region encompasses almost fifty wineries of different size,
historical background and traditions, wine types or price levels. Twenty four of such
wineries are united under DO Emprodia Wine Route, which aim to promote wine tourism
and provide specialized services, activities and programs for tourists. Additionally, four
museums especially dedicated to the history and traditions of winegrowing in the region
can attract the interest of wine lovers. For spa and beauty seekers, there are wine
therapy centres offering skin and body care treatments using properties of wines and
grapes. Having a strong wine culture DO Empordia Wine Route also organizes several
festivals, fests or seminars and other events during the season. For example, Fest del
Vi Nou de Colonge (The New Wine Festival of Colonge) usually takes place in the end
of the years. It celebrates the first wine harvest of the season, and includes wine
conference, music, food fests and cultural events.
5.3.3. Active tourism
The Costa Brava can be visited the whole year around. This is not only due to the
vast number of historical and heritage sights but also a great climate and geographical
peculiarities of the region.
Skiing. Girona Pyrenees give the opportunity to experience skiing and other snow
related activities in total five ski resorts. La Molina, Masella, Vall de Nuria and
Vallter 2000 are Alpine ski resorts, whereas Guils-Fontanera is a Nordic ski resort.
The first two make the largest skiing area in the Pyrenees, and are known for
over hundred good quality slopes of all levels, as well as hosting the major
international events and competitions. There are also wide range of
accommodation options, ski schools as well as opportunities for various snow
activities for the whole family. In the summer, the ski resorts transform into a great
platform for summer sports and tourism activities.
Cycling, hiking and ecotourism. During the warm season, the best way to explore
the scenic nature of Pyrenees, its coasts and beautiful towns is through the
cycling touring. There are kilometres of trails along the roads and railways, as
well as mountain bike trails along the scenic spots at tourists ’ disposal. With the
59
help of over hundred small businesses across the whole Costa Brava, which
provide various services related to bike rental, guided cycle touring, specialized
biker’s accommodation such as camping and others, tourists can explore the
surrounding in an active and fun way. Particularly, the town Sant Feliu de Guixols
has three establishment that offer cycling tours, four biking services such as
garages and bicycle transportation, as well as five lodges specialized for bikers.
Likewise, there are large number of hiking trails of various difficulty level and
distance. Long-distance routes, short-distance routes, local paths or coastal
footpaths will suite tourists with different needs. Almost twenty companies provide
specialized guided services along the hiking routes and nature trails accompanied
by experts.
Cycling and hiking can well be combined with ecotourism trip to numerous Natural
Parks. Individuals, groups or families can enjoy guided tours with themes such as
birdwatching, orchids, high mountain fauna or aquatic areas. There are overall
fifteen organizations and associations in towns of the Costa Brava, which offer a
big range of options for loves of nature.
Sea and seaside activities. Along more than 200 kilometres of coastline, the Costa
Brava offers seventeen marinas for yachting, as well as over thirty diving centres
including natural reserves, wild caves, deep seas and others. Moreover, along
numerous beaches one can engage into various seas activities (see Table 14).
Table 14
Sea and Seaside activities in the Costa Brava
Activity Number of
services
Available at
Sant Feliu
de Guixols
Activity Number of
services
Available at
Sant Feliu
de Guixols
Snorkelling 7 Yes Boat trips 12 No
Water
skiing
3 Yes Boat hire 15 Yes
Kayaking 16 No Multi
activities
9 Yes
Windsurfing 9 No Boats with
underwater
views
5 No
Kitesurfing 4 No Sailing 15 Yes
60
In Sant Feliu de Guixols, Bravamar is one of the leading centres for active
tourism working since 2005. Bravamar offers a big range of services for active
tourism such as kayak trips, diving, boat hire, sailing along with land act ivities as
cycling or trekking.
Family holidays. Some towns of the Costa Brava have special status of Family
Tourist Destination recognized by Catalan Tourism Agency. This imply that
infrastructure of such town are tailored to provide specialized services for families
with children. There are seven family-friendly towns, which possess such
certificate, each of which has something special to offer. Blanes, for example, has
water parks, children’s play park as well as offers horse riding, carting, fun
activities in museums and others. Roses, on the other hand, provides more nature
related activities for children such as nature walks, birdwatching; entertainment
including cinemas, minigolf, kind’s club on the beach; and also learning activities
as learning to sail and windsurf. The town of Sant Feliu de Guixols offers more
culturally oriented services for families. These include exhibition at Space Carmen
Thyssen with the dedicated corner for children named “Space of the Small Artist” ,
or thematic heritage tours specially designed to entertain children. Apart from this,
the town offers various sea activities, sports and entertainment. Additionally, the
region has overall three major aqua parks in towns of Roses (Aqua Brava), Platja
d’Aro (Aquadiver) and Lloret de Mar (Water World), each offering water activities
for adults and children.
Casinos. There are a number of opportunities for gamblers and risk takers in the
Costa Brava. However, only two of them are the most emblematic and popular not
only in Catalonia but also in Spain – recently established Gran Casino Costa
Brava in Lloret de Mar and Casino Castell de Perlada in Perlada. These premises
are respectively 40 and 85 km away from Hotel Eden Roc and provide full range
of services from accommodation, spa and relaxation to catering and business
events.
Shopping. Shopping tourism in its widespread meaning, i.e. fashion does not exist
in the Costa Brava. There are few small-sized shopping outlet in the major towns,
but they are insignificant in comparison to the opportunities in bigger cities. The
region can only offer the shopping of tourism products such as souvenirs, wine
and handicraft products, as well as experience at the weekly markets for fresh
products. However, the advantage of the Costa Brava lies in the fact that there
are two major Spanish cities namely Girona and Barcelona located relatively
nearby, only 35 and 107 km respectively from Hotel Eden Roc.
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5.4. Festivals and events
Apart from Spanish national holidays, each region has its own calendar of
festivals and events, so-called ferias and fiestas. The Costa Brava is rich various events
and festivals depicting different topics starting from culture and traditions, to modern
music and film festivals. The events in the Costa Brava can generally be divided into two
categories. The first one can be categorized as festivals that reflect the deep -rooted
culture and traditions of the region, the second one as modern annual or occasional
events related to modern day lifestyle and arts of the Costa Brava. Each event is unique
in its topic, location, size and prominence.
Festa Major (or main local festival) is one of the most important celebrations of the
year for each town of the Costa Brava. The celebration takes part in different times of
the year depending on the events calendar of towns and it features music, parades,
dancing, fireworks, food as well as events for children during this festive period.
However, such festival mostly takes place in the high tourist seasons, June/July
throughout August and September. Some towns celebrate it in early November or even
December. The duration of the festival is also varied but mostly lasts for one or two days.
Some events attached to the festival can even be scattered along the whole week. Sant
Feliu de Guixols usually celebrates such event in the end of July and the beginnings of
Ausugst.
Together with Catalan calendar of national holidays, the towns of the Costa Brava
celebrate around fifty other traditional and popular events related to various topics. The
list of such festivals can be found in Appendix. The events are not scattered evenly
throughout the year. As the Figure 14 illustrates, again the biggest number of such
events take place during the highest tourist seasons, from June to September , although
in February and April are also popular months for such events. Comparably low number
of celebrations are held from October to January, as well as in March and May.
The festivals again reflect various topics. There are many traditional festivals related
to dance, culture, gastronomy, music or heritage. No less number of events are
dedicated to religious topics such as Holy Week or Maritime Processions as well as
Shrine Festival. Sports and entertainment events as auto rallies, 40-km walk or biking
are also popular among locals and tourists.
62
Figure 14. The number of traditional and popular festivals in the Costa Brava
Throughout the year, there are almost hundred fairs and markets held on the towns
of the coast. Apart from traditional Christmas or seasonal fairs (autumn and spring), the
people of the Costa Brava organize numerous other fairs and markets related to their
daily lifestyle or deep-rooted traditions. Medieval markets and craft markets for antiques,
pottery or other craft good, which have long lasting traditions, arts fairs depicting unique
artworks in drawing and painting of the locals, or nature related markets and fairs such
as Landscape Fair in Palau-saverdera are among other tens of events. Each fair and
market is accompanied by special programs with the elements of entertainment,
gastronomy, dance and music.
Along with traditional festivals, fairs and markets, the Costa Brava hosts a great
range of music, theatre, circus and event film festivals. The uniqueness of venues
including historical monuments and botanical gardens, where such events take place
also add its value. There are around seventy music festivals of classic music, opera,
jazz, pop and rock music, together with traditional havaneres and sardana music fests.
Moreover, there are almost ten events dedicated to theatre and performing arts as, most
of which are held in the biggest cities such as Girona. Almost the same number of street
and indoor circus, magic or dance festivals such as City of Figures International Circus
Festival, one of Europe’s top 22 circus attraction, take place in the towns of the Costa
Brava.
5.5. Accommodation services in the Costa Brava
Being a destination focused on tourism activities, predominantly to sand, sea and sun
type of holidays, there are a huge number of options for accommodation suited to
different types of tourists in the Costa Brava. Charming small hotels, seas side resorts,
mountain hotels, hostels, guesthouses, apartments even accommodation located in the
2
4
2
5
2
65 5
7
1 12
63
historical buildings, all of them presented across all categories from ordinary one-star to
luxury five-star grand deluxe hotels. However, for the purpose of the given paper only
the hotels of 4* and above were chosen for this analysis.
5.5.1. Top rated luxury hotels
The Costa Brava is not considered as the primary luxury destination even in the scale
of Spain. This becomes obvious considering the total number of top rated hotels in the
region. Overall, there are thirteen 4-stars superior, ten 5-stars as well as two 5-stars
Grand Luxe category of hotels available in the whole region. The biggest number of top
rated hotels are located at Lloret de Mar (38 km from Sant Feliu de Guixols), the most
popular seaside destination in the Cost Brava, with seven out of twenty-five such hotels.
Among other popular seaside towns with top rated hotels are Platja d’Aro, Blanes,
Roses, Toses and Bolvi. However, the global popular luxury hotel brands are not present
within this category. All of the hotels bear local brands, but provide a high quality
corresponding to such ranking services (see Appendix 3). It is also worth to point out
that, not all of these hotels are located along the beaches but also on the major natural
spots with beautiful mountain views.
5.5.2. Other high category hotels
As for 4-star standard hotels, one can choose among almost 120 premises in various
locations, with different services and facilities. This is the hotel category, where majority
of global hotel brands are present, among which are Best Westin, Holiday Inn or Hilton.
In Sant Feliu de Guixols and neighbouring town S’Agaro, there are four 4-stars hotels.
These are Confortel Caleta Park, Curhotel Hipocrates, Hotel Eden Roc as well as
S’Agaro Mar Hotel. Each hotel has advantageous location to the main beach of each
city, offers great facilities and services for relaxation, sports and conferences (see
Appendix 3). As can be seen from the table, all hotels have almost the same range of
services and facilities and are rated almost equally the same across popular hotel
reviews platforms as booking.com and Tripadvisor. Some hotels stress their services for
a certain type of segment. For example, S’Agaro Mar hotel provides entertainment for
children and special pool designed for children, Hotel Eden Roc, on the other hand ,
targets more golf players, businessmen and special groups for workshops. Overall, all
hotels score high in terms of location and cleanliness, but rate low in terms of services
and rooms.
64
5.5.3. Hotel Eden Roc
Hotel Eden Roc is one of three hotels, which belong to the same group, along with
4-stars Cap Roig Hotel in Platja d’Aro and 3-stars Hotel MontJoi in Sant Feliu de
Guixols.The hotel is located about 1 km from the city in a peninsular with clear sea
surrounding. It consists of 3 separate buildings namely, Hotel Eden Roc, Health Center
Port Salvi and Garden Eden.
The hotel offers the following room types:
standard and family standard rooms for four people, with the basic services and
amenities such as air conditions, bathroom, TV, phone, hairdryer, fridge and minibar .
superior rooms with the sea view, triple and family rooms, which have own terrace
and great views to the sea. Moreover, compared to standard rooms, the bathrooms are
equipped with Jacuzzi.
Port Salvi superior double and Suite Port Salvi rooms, which is located in Port Salvi
building additionally offers marble floors and bathrooms, spa treatments, large rooms
with terrace and sun loungers.
There are two restaurants in the hotel offering barbecue buffet and regional special
meals. Moreover, there are a spacious living room, two lounge bar and a billiard room
for relaxation. For the purpose of business meetings and seminars, hotel possesses five
conference rooms with the capacity of up to 350 people and a great sea view. These
events rooms are also applicable for a large number of workshops, seminars as well as
retreats in various areas. For example, the hotel annually hosts workshops on yoga,
meditation, reiki and other spiritual events. Due to its proximity to a number of high
quality golf courses, the hotel offers to enjoy the facilities of eight world-class courses
by establishing a successful collaboration with them. The hotel provides special ground
arrangements for golfers, facilities and even golf packages. As for other activities, the
hotel group, to which belongs Hotel Eden Roc owns its own tennis club with four clay
courts, organizes group and individual trainings for cyclists as well as other activities
such as water skiing, bowling, windsurfing, sailing and so on. The last but not least, in
its Port Salvi centre, the hotel organizes various packages for spa and wellness
treatments using Ayuverdic science.
65
5.6 Gastronomy and catering services
Gastronomy plays an important role in the Costa Brava’s culture and traditions. Its
cuisine is a part of Mediterranean cuisine; however, it has its own specialties taking into
account the peculiarities of its geography and culture. The traditional dishes are made
of predominantly sea products such as anchovies, prawns, monkfish and blue fish, skate
as well as rockfish, which can be found in various coastal areas of the Mideterranean.
On the other hand, the regions spacious land and natural resources provide a big range
of agricultural products as turnips, onions, rice, beans or apples, which in combination
with sea products give a birth to a great Costa Brava cuisine. There are more than 2,5
thousand restaurants across towns of the Costa Brava that offer local and international
cuisines. In fact, Girona province, especially the Costa Brava became one of the leading
destination for gastronomic tours attracting tourists from all around the world. Indeed,
the restaurant El Celler de Can Roca from the region has been rated as the best
restaurants in the world in 2013. Currently, there are thirteen restaurants with seventeen
Michelin stars in both coastal and inland cities as Girona, Roses or Tossa de Mar. The
gastronomic richness of Costa Brava’s is not only restricted to its local Mediterranean
cuisine. There is also a great variety of international restaurants available in the region,
among which are restaurants offering popular European and Asian cuisine. However,
this is just a drop in the ocean, and it can be said that Chinese tourists may have very
limited choice their national food. The same can be said in regard to Sant Feliu de
Guioxols.
5.7. Airports
As it was pointed out in the previous chapters, the availability of convenient flights
and direct flights may have a strong influence on destination choice. There are two
international airports available near Hotel Eden Roc: Girona-Costa Brava Airport, which
is located 30 km from the hotel as well as Barcelona-El Prat Airport, only 117 km away.
Girona-Costa Brava Airport is the second largest airport in Barcelona and is used as
an alternative of Barcelona-El Prat airport. It has well-connected ground routes to main
towns and cities of the Costa Brava. The airport is mainly used by local, regional (within
EU) as well as some international airlines. It is one of the main hubs for Ryan air which
operation seasonal and regular flights to almost 40 European destinations of Western,
Northern and Eastern Europe. Moreover, other low cost airlines along with seasonal
charter flights operated by major European tour operators such as Thomas Cook fly to
Girona. Among international airlines outside of Europe, only Russian Transaero arranges
66
seasonal flights from Moscow. The airport receives no other airlines from far Asian or
American destinations, which is inconvenient for the Chinese.
Barcelona-El Prat Airport, on the other hand, is the second major airport in Spain
(after Madrid Barajas Airport) and is considered one of the busiest in the world. The
airport has well connected routes not only to major European destinations, but also to
North Africa, Middle East (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, UAE and Qatar), Latin (Brazil, Argentina
and Columbia) and North America (USA and Canada) as well as Asia (China, Korea and
Singapore). It is the main hub for Iberia Regional, Air Europa and Ryanair . Luckily, Air
China recently started to operate direct flights between Beijing and Barcelona over Wien.
Nowadays, the frequency of such flights raised to once a day.
The can be regarded as a positive sign in relation to the Chinese market, as it give
much scope and flexibility to attract Chinese tourists to the Costa Brava. On the other
hand, knowing the patterns of such tourists, and taking into account the relatively low
number of flight between the two countries, it can be assumed that Spain, not event
talking about the Costa Brava as a destination, is unlikely to be the only destination of
their trip.
67
6. SURVEY RESULTS AND EVALUATION
The given section of the Master Thesis describes the results of the survey conducted
among 98 respondents from four 4-stars hotels in the town. The results are analysed
and compared to findings of other sources reviewed in previous chapters. First part
outlines the demographic composition of the respondents, including information related
to their age, gender, marital status and travel partner. Second part reveals the travel
career ladder, and thus the travel experience of the sample. Next, it presents the push
factors of the Chinese that motivate them to travel abroad, as well as their pull factors
that made them travel to the Costa Brava. The final part will report on the satisfaction
level of the Chinese tourists with their experience with the hotels, where the survey took
place. The transcription of all the survey results are given in Appendices 4, 5 and 6.
6.1. Demographic factors of the respondents
Graphs illustrate the demographic composition of the respondents. The sample
comprised of around 60% male and 40%, 59 and 39 respondents respectively (Figure
15). The Figure 16 illustrates the response rate based on the age groups, which revealed
that majority, almost half, were between 36 and 45 years. The next biggest group (38%)
of those surveyed come at the higher age (between 46-60). The other two response
groups are quite inconsiderable compared to higher age respondents. Very insignificant
number of the surveyed comprised the eldest group of 60 years old and above, as well
as the youngest group of people. This sample of respondents staying in hotels in the
Costa Brava perfectly corresponds to the age group of the frequently travelling wealthy
class Chinese as discussed in previous chapters, where people between 31 and 50 years
old comprise the biggest portion of the rich.
Male60%
Female40%
Figure 15. Demographic factors of
the respondents according to
gender
26-357%
36-4549%
46-6038%
>606%
Figure 16. Demographic factors of
the respondents according to age
groups
68
Additionally, the respondents were asked to specify their marital status (see Figure
17). The considerable majority of survey participants indicated that they are have a legal
life partners in the face of a wife or a husband. Likely, more than half of the married had
children. This is the clear reflection of the general findings on the demographics of the
Chinese stated above, especially its wealthy class. There were no respondents, who
were either single or divorced. About one-tenth indicated that they were in a relationship.
Moreover, family members were the most popular travel companions among the
surveyed, where 79% reported that they travelled with their relatives (Figure 18).
Travelling with friends was the second biggest indicated answer, whereas only one
person travelled alone.
6.2. Travel career ladder of the respondents
One of the important objectives of the survey was to reveal the travel career ladder of
the respondents in order to find out, whether Spain or, in particular, the Costa Brava is
considered as the favourite destinations to travel at a certain step of their travel
experience. The questions about respondents’ frequency to Europe in general and to
Spain in specific were asked to find it out (Figures 19 and 20).
Figure 17. Demographic factors of
the respondents according to
marital status
30%
61%
0%
0%
9%
Married without children
Married with children
Single
Divorced
In a relationship
1%
79%
18%
2%
Alone
Family members
Friends
Other
Figure 18. Demographic factors of
the respondents according to
travel partner
69
More than half of the surveyed Chinese reported that they have already been to
Europe 5-7 time before, whereas almost one-third paid a visit 2-4 times. Unexpectedly,
relatively many surveyed Chinese were very frequent travellers to Europe (17% in total).
Thus, more than one-tenth were in Europe between 8 and 10 times, whereas 5
respondents indicated that this is their more than 10 th visit to the continent. There were
no first-time visitors among the respondents. On the other hand, when the respondents
were asked about their frequency of travel to Spain, the figures indicate a mismatch.
Indeed, majority of the answered visited Spain not as frequent as they visited Europe.
Two biggest groups (50% and 29%) were the first or only few times in Spain before.
Whereas, only about one-fifth very more or less regular in Spain (19% travelled 5-7 times
and only tiny amount of surveyed 8-10 times). Based on these numbers, the following
can be summarized:
1. There were no tourists from China, who visited Spain during their first visit to
Europe;
2. Mostly those travellers, who visit Europe, also visit Spain.
Moreover, Figure 21 indicates that almost all Chinese respondents prefer to visit
other destination of Europe apart from Spain. This was clearly the case at the literature
review, where it was mentioned that Chinese, once received Schengen visa, travel
across several destinations. As for the booking patterns (Figure 22), almost 40%
0%
29%
54%
12%
5%
First time
2-4 times
5-7 times
8-10 times
>10
29%
50%
19%
2%
0%
First time
2-4 times
5-7 times
8-10 times
>10
Figure 19. Frequency of travel to
Europe by respondents
Figure 20. Frequency of travel to Spain
by respondents
70
answered that they booked the travel arrangements with the help of travel agency,
whereas little less booked by themselves. On the one hand, this illustrates the existence
of traditional way of bookings through third parties, but on the other hand, new trends in
independent travel by Chinese, where all the bookings are done independently online.
Only 15% booked through their friends and relatives, and a little less did so with the help
of other means.
6.3. Push factors
Section B of the questionnaire was aimed at identifying, among other, the push
factors, which motivate Chinese to travel abroad. Among range of factors, respondents
were allowed to select more than one answer. The Table 15 gives the overview of the
top most frequently indicated factors, which scored more than 70%.
Table 15
Top 6 most indicated push factors
The top 6 indicated factors
Number of respondents
Response rate
1 do shopping 88 90%
2 experience a different lifestyles or traditions 84 86%
3 enjoy time together with my travel companion(s) 84 86%
4 increase my social status 81 83%
5 sightsee touristic spots 70 71%
6 visit new places I have never been to 69 70%
Yes2%
No98%
34%
39%
15%
12%
by myself
through travel agency
friends and relatives
other
Figures 21. Proportion of responses,
if Spain was the only destination of
the current visit
Figure 22. Booking pattern of the
respondents
71
Shopping was the most often indicated factor of travel motivation by respondents.
90% mentioned it in the survey. However, this might not mean that this is the most
important factor, but one of the must-do activities during their trip. To “enjoy time
together with my travel companion(s)” were the second most popular factors specified
the by surveyed Chinese. Both factors were mentioned by the same amount of
respondents. The importance of travelling with the loved ones and bringing time abroad
together, indeed, is an important motivation for the Chinese. The high number of
respondents travelling with the family members is a clear illustrates that . This may imply,
that when choosing a destinations, availability family fr iendly infrastructure is a vital
choice factor. Therefore, creating the corresponding conditions for families, especially
families with kids during their visit and stay in the hotel gains a high significance.
In the previous chapters, it was also mentioned that social status is one of the
valued cultural characteristics of the Chinese. As the 83% of respondents reported, they
tend to travel abroad, or particularly to Europe, in order to increase their social status in
the eyes of the friends and relatives. Three out of six top push factors, namely
“experience a different lifestyle or traditions”, “sightsee touristic spots” as well as “visiting
new places” are not really dependant on the characteristics of Asian culture. Escaping
the everyday life, seeing new places and experiencing something new are rather
illustrations of common human behaviour to travel, corresponding to the general
definition of tourism. Another important point to outline is that this finding reveals a slight
deviation to the theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, in particular to the conclusions
of Hsu and Huang (2008), who stated that tourists travel motivation is dictated by their
strive for self-actualization. However, this survey indicated that Chinese ’s higher level
needs is to share time with others around them. Therefore, it is not self-actualization but
rather actualization with the loved ones. Among the less indicated motivational factors
were meeting new people, thrill, excitement and fulfilling a dream as well as appreciating
natural sights.
6.4. Pull factors
The second objective of Section B was to identify the main pull factors or certain
destination attributes that influenced on the decision of the respondents to visit Spain,
and particularly the Costa Brava region. The Table illustrates the top 8 factors, which
scored the rate of 70% and above.
72
Table 16
Top 8 most indicated pull factors
The top 6 indicated factors
Number of respondents
Response rate
1 I wanted to visit heritage sites 91 93%
2 I wanted to experience local culture 89 91%
3 Spain is a safe destination 87 89%
4 Cost Brava has beautiful beaches 85 87%
5 There are great activities for entire family 81 83%
6 I wanted to visit natural sites 80 82%
7 I wanted to experience a luxury destination abroad
77 79%
8 I wanted to experience outdoor activities 75 77%
The willingness to visit heritage sites and experience local culture are the top
motivational factors that had the biggest impact on Chinese’s decision to visit the Costa
Brava. Other destination specific attributes such as safety and availability of beautiful
beaches also scored high. By bringing in the parallels between the findings of the given
Master Thesis, as well as those reported by Travel Monitor in the previous chapters,
where such factors as safety and heritage sights were also among the most important
ones, one can see the obvious similarities. Having beautiful natural tourism resources
as well as possibility to experience various outdoor activities of the Costa Brava, which
reviewed in the last chapter of this paper, have been valued high among the respondents.
Indeed, 82% and 77% of respondents decided to visit the Costa Brava by also taking
into account these factors. Although appreciating natural resources was not the main
push factor to travel. Given that majority of the surveyed travel with their families, family-
friendliness of the destinations was also considered seriously at the travel planning
stage. Besides, the status of Family Tourism Destinations, given to some towns such as
Santa Feliu de Guixols, gives an important advantage for cities as well as hotels to attract
Chinese tourists.
Interestingly, the big proportion of the surveyed indicated the destination as being
luxury, although this was not one of their main push factors at all. In addition, as reviewed
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in the tourism resources of the Costa Brava, there are only few specific attributes that
can categorize this destination as luxury. There are only few world luxury hotel brands,
and only few hotels with 5-stars rating, although availability of restaurants with Michelin
stars and a number of major golf course can dispute this vision. Another interesting fact
revealed as a result of the survey is the attitude towards shopping. Even though shopping
is one of the must-do activities during the travel and in fact, an important push factor,
the Costa Brava is not seen as an ideal destination for this. Only 17% responded
positively. This may, first of all, indicate that the respondents did a profound research
about the destination, and secondly, that the Chinese planned their shopping activities
in other specifically pre-chosen destinations before or after their stay in the Costa Brava.
Among the less important but still relatively high valued attributes were nightlife,
amusement parks, events and festivals as well as local food.
6.5. Satisfaction with hotels
In Section D of the questionnaire (see Appendix 4 Section D), the respondents were
asked to rate various services, facilities and amenities of hotels according to Likert
Scale, from excellent to very poor. Overall, it can be said that amenities in hotel rooms,
hotel facilities and location were reported by the majority as excellent or good.
Particularly, hotel room amenities were voted as “good” by 63%, whereas facilities such
as pool, fitness or laundry were indicated as excellent and good by 49% and 47%
respondents respectively. This is a good indication that hotels partially meet the needs
of the Chinese travellers. In this regard, Hipocrates Curhotel gained the most of top
rating compared to zero “excellent” rate for Hotel Eden Roc. Location is the most
favourite and valued characteristic of hotels. Overall, it was reported as “excellent” and
“good” by 94% of respondents. Apart from Confortel Caleta Park all other hotels received
the top rate by half or more respondents.
Referring to the quality level in relation to the personnel, i.e. guest relation staff,
service staff or restaurant services, one can see a little bit different picture. The most
favourite answer was “good”, selected by 46%, 49% and 58% respectively. However, it
is also worth to note that especially for guest relation staff, the answer was not definite
but rather ambiguous. Answers like “satisfactory” and “poor”, which was indicated by
total 27%, were also common, whereas 3% mentioned it as “very poor”. Such
unclearness can be explained by looking at response rates across the hotels. What rally
stands out from the gathered responses, is that Hipocrates Curhotel gained 80%
“excellent” score, whereas Hotel Eden Roc tops the “good” score with 75%. The most
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unsatisfied customers with the guest relation staff were identified in IGH S’Agaro Mar.
Likewise, the second favourite answer for service staff (32%) was “satisfactory”.
Restaurant services were comparatively rated higher , although “satisfactory” was the
second highest selected answer. It was interesting to see if satisfaction level with the
personnel reflect the common service level in the hotel or it is related to specific
characteristics of the Chinese traveller. The more qualitative insight in this issue is
discussed further in this paper.
Restaurant menu and food quality were also not very popular among the respondents.
55% of the surveyed indicated that they are neither satisfied nor unsatisfied with the
choice of dishes in the menu of hotel restaurants. Again, the answers in this regard are
not definite since there also those who indicated menu as “excellent” (3%) as well as
“very poor” (2%). Other responses were split among “good” (21%) and “poor” (15%) . As
for food quality, 62% find it “good” and 31% - “satisfactory”. The figures are similar to
those of restaurant services, which may indicate that these two factors have strong
influence on each other. For example, a customer satisfied with the service quality may
also perceive food as good or vice versa. Breakfast were overall rated positive, mostly
as “good” (63%). The comparative analysis of the hotels shows that GHT S’Agaro Mar
has the most satisfied customers (46 – good), and Hipocrates Curhotel was the opposite
(60% poor).
Services in relation to internet are probably the worst rated factors in hotels. As
discussed in previous chapters, availability of WIFI in hotels is an important feature, and
in fact, a must-have feature for the Chinese because staying connected with their friends
and relatives is part of their culture. Most of the respondents seemed to have problems
with WIFI speed, because it was rated as “satisfactory” and “poor” by 45% and 39%
respectively. The situation WIFI coverage also not positive (rated as “poor” by 41%) but
the answers were again unclear. Overall, more than half of the Chinese indicated WIFI
coverage as “good” and “satisfactory”. This is most probably dependant on WIFI services
of certain hotel or hotels. Indeed, only Hipocrates Curhotel gained the majority of “good”
score in terms of speed (40%) and coverage (80%). Hotel Eden Roc has the lowest
indicator of coverage (58% poor) but relatively moderate speed (47% satisfactory). One
of the reasons could be the fact that, the hotel is located on a vast territory with 310
rooms and three different buildings, which brings challenges to provide WIFI connection
everywhere. Overall, the poor rating of factors related to internet can be explained
through the optional provision of WIFI connection in almost all surveyed hotels.
Among other services rated relatively low are hotel information provided as well as
payment system. The majority specified that the information provided was “satisfactory”
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(42%) or even “poor” (28%). The answers were not clear again but rather scattered along
the scale. Likewise, customers were moderately or not satisfied with the payment system
in the hotel, which may point to such services are not adapted well enough for
peculiarities of Chinese tourists. In that sense, Hotel Eden Roc and Hipocates Curhotel
have more positive responses compared to other two. Amenities for children were well
accepted but almost evenly distributed among “excellent” (30%), “good” (24%) and
“satisfactory” (29%), although 17% seemed not to use such facilities because they
travelled without children. Such positive rating are the reflection of works undergone to
create a suitable Family Tourist Destination by city municipalities and hotels in particular.
The comparison across four hotels reveals that Hotel Eden Roc and GHT S’Agaro Mar
are the most suitable hotels for families. Both received the top “excellent” scores (56%
and 69% respectively), whereas the other two received the most “satisfactory” scores.
Overall, it can be concluded that there is no hotel that has clearly better rating across
all factors. As for Hotel Eden Roc in particular, one can summarize that hotel faces
problems with some facilities suitable for the Chinese tourists, including internet
connection, useful information for the guests as well as suitable menu.
6.6. Qualitative responses
In addition to main surveys, ten interviews were conducted among randomly selected
interviewees in Hotel Eden Roc in order to back up the results with qualitative analysis.
Brief notes on interview answers are available in Appendix 5. Majority of respondents (4
out of 10) when asked about the reason for choosing this particular hotel , replied that it
was offered by the travel agency. This may suggest the strong presence of traditional
industry players like travel intermediaries. Two respondents were looking for a proper
accommodation for a family, which could provide corresponding facilities and services
for children. Three interviewees mentioned that this hotel was suggested or chosen by
other family members, either by son of an old lady, who had visited this place two years
ago, or a husband of a lady, who learned about the hotel from relatives.
Among the best experiences with the hotel, one can highlight few common answers.
Location of the hotel as well as wellness services, especially hotel’s special Ayuverdic
treatments. Interestingly, women were mostly happy with these two criteria, which really
excited them most of all. In terms of the latter one, the respondents mentioned the
isolated location of the hotel, its vast territory made of cliffs and a garden as well as
beautiful views because this is “something we do not usually see and feel at home”. Only
one, was keen on Catalonian food offered in hotel’s restaurant, as he mentioned, being
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an enthusiast he is interested in trying various food, which cannot be said about his
family members, who prefer “only Chinese food”. The mostly announced worst
experiences were related to services in the hotels. In particular, language barriers
caused the majority problems, because only few of the respondents and even a large
portion of tourist group members did not speak other languages apart from Chinese. As
one tourist group leader replied, “this is the issue we are facing overall in Europe and
that is one of the reasons why we prefer to travel in groups”. The availability of internet
across the hotel territory, low speed have been the subject of a big criticism. Some
respondents indicated that they always need to stay connected with their friends and
loved ones at home and share their experience as they are on the way. Indeed, during
the stay of the group, the hotel received many complaints about the internet connection.
As mentioned above, local food had been a challenge for the tourists because it was oily
and the taste was not typical to what they got used to. As it was revealed, most of the
groups were taken to the Chinese or other Asian restaurants in the city as part of their
holiday package.
The overall the difference between the expectation of the hotel and its real life
experience have been split almost evenly. Those, who tried wellness services and the
surroundings, for example, were mostly happy with the ho tels because “they did not
know about this service/were not aware of the hotel’s great location and activities”.
Those, whose expectations were below were mostly unhappy with the services due to
the reasons mentioned above. One of the respondents suggested that he was bored
because he did not know what to do in the free time. Although there was some
information available at the hotel on various activities, he found it difficult to
communicate with the personnel to get additional information. The language barrier,
even the English accent of the locals was problematic to understand. As for the
suggestions to improve the services, most of the answers were related to question
related to their negative experience and low expectation. Better internet connection,
Chinese/Asian food, information in Chinese were among the most common suggestions
for improvement. For instance, one respondent said if there was an offer on the Chinese
food in the hotel or at least if it could be delivered, we would stay here and order rather
than go outside to a restaurant. Another suggested that hotels implements payment
system, which could accept Chinese local credit cards such as UnionPay, otherwise he
could not spend money at the hotel. Room amenities have also been the subject of much
criticism. Indeed, the furniture in the rooms is quite old and was the reason for many
complains not only among Chinese customers. The management plans to update the
rooms in 2016.
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The last two questions were aimed to find out how pleasant experience of the Chinese
tourists results in their intension to revisit and a positive word-of-mouth. As the results
suggest, those, who were mostly satisfied with the hotels despite the minor problems
said they would return to the hotel again. The highest rate were in respondents number
1, 5, 9 and 10. Two of them said they would return either because her “children liked the
place most of all”, although the same respondent said this is not the best place for her
personally (respondent number 1). Likely, another respondent replied she would come
with other members of her family, she mainly mentioned its youngest members. Other
common answers were related to the seasonality because April was “ too chilly and
rainy”, the summer was assumingly the best season to visit the Costa Brava and the
hotel in particular to make most out of the experience. What regards to their intensions
to recommend Hotel Eden Roc to their friends and relatives, the majority gave the above
average rate (7 and higher). Some were mentioning friends/relatives with families, which
may underline the importance of family holidays in Chinese culture. However, from the
point of view of an author, the answers to the last two questions could have its bias.
Having lived in China and communicated with the Chinese very often, there is a feeling
that the respondents were not fully honest with their responses. Knowing that the concept
of face is strongly present in their culture, it could be possible that the interviewees were
trying to be polite to the interviewer and help save her face. It is assumed that if
interviews were to conducted not in person, the results could be different . This is one of
the major limitations of this part of the research.
6.7. Interview with the hotel management
In order to find out the motivation as well as the level of interest of a hotel
management in Chinese travel segment, it was decided to conduct a short interview with
the hotel’s General Manager, Mr. Robert Sanchez. The brief notes of the interview can
be found in Appendix 6. In the interview, he mentioned that there were several key trends
in travel industry recently, which had an impact on the hotel’s business. First of all, the
competition among hotels in the Costa Brava for European tourists, especially from the
UK, France and Germany is intensely high. Secondly, Russian outbound travel market,
which had been booming during the last decade and which became a high profit earner
for the hotel, abruptly collapsed during the last year due to the political crisis between
Russia and the EU. Chinese market, on the other hand, despite the negative global
processes is developing rapidly. According to Mr. Sanchez, Chinese tourists visiting
Europe are mainly represent the wealth class of the society and their families because
only few can afford to travel to here. Moreover, since Chinese like to travel with their
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families, these are the suitable segments for the hotel, which can minimize the potential
loss due to collapse of the Russian market. Chinese are also known to travel any season
of the year, especially to Europe, which is a good opportunity to reduce the seasonality
factors by attracting them in different part of the seasons.
In terms of advantages, which hotel can offer to Chinese segment, Mr. Sanchez
highlighted the unique location of the hotel, the surrounding that he believes could
fascinate the tourists. Apart from this, hotel offers great facilities for families to enjoy
their holiday at the destination. Given that hotel offers activities for golfers across eight
golf courses located close to the hotel, as well as spa, wellness and its well -known
Ayuverdic treatments can attract certain wealthy class of the Chinese tourists . Although,
the interest in the market is there, there has not been done much to attract this segment.
The reason for this, according to Mr. Sanchez is that the hotel has its main customer
base, mainly from countries as Russia, Europe or France, which need to be maintained
and therefore cannot afford to focus on researching and marketing Chinese tourists so
quick. The first obstacle seemed to be the lack of knowledge about the profile of such
tourists, hence there is no certain strategy to attract them. However, interviewer pointed
out that the hotel is present in the main online hotel booking engines such as
www.booking.com, www.hotels.com, www.expedia.com or many others, which have the
Chinese pages. The hotel has few partnerships with the local and European travel
agencies and tour operators that work on Chinese markets, and also the hotel is trying
to establish the cooperation with the tour operators in China offering various tours to
Europe and, particularly, Spain. The only terms of partnership is the commission from
the room price.
The hotel’s general director seemed to have a clear vision of how he sees the
market should be developed. First, he pointed out that they need to understand the
customer i.e. do an in-depth research about the Chinese tourist, his/her psychology, the
needs, desires and requirements. After that, from the general pool of the market, it is
important to identify those certain segments, which can match the peculiarities of the
hotel’s offers such as golf activities, spa, wellness, family segments and others. The
hotel, in turn, needs to match its strategies to match the behaviours, needs and wants
of these segments. Based on this, there is a requirement to create a sophisticated
marketing and communication plan, identify the right distribution channels, create the
partnerships, utilize the new types of media in order to reach these customers. Apart
from that, the hotel management needs to create certain holiday packages specifically
10. Introduce special occasion programs for weddings, birthdays, Chinese New Year,
corporate celebrations, golf competitions and other cultural events.
11. Introduce special promotions incentivizing one member of a family such as mother
for a free Ayuverdic treatment or a father for a free golf game.
12. Introduce loyalty program based by providing more discounts for their next visit.
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LIST OF LITERATURE AND SOURCES
1. Arita S., Edmonds C., La Croix S., Mak J.(2011), Impact of Approved Destination
Status on Chinese travel abroad: an econometric analysis , Tourism Economics, 17 (5) http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sumner_La_Croix/publication/233563442_Impact_of_Appro
15. Digital Jungle (2013), Attracting Chinese guests using social media http://www.digitaljungle.com.cn/pdf/Attracting%20chinese%20guests%20using%20social%20m
edia-%20v2.pdf [retrieved 30.04.2015]
16. Dream Properties International (2015), Map of Spain http://www.dreampropertiesinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Spanish-map-coasts.jpg
[retrieved 30.04.2015]
17. European Commission (2014), Tourism industry sub-sectors. Country report: Spain ,
March http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/tourism-business-
49. PATA China Office and COTRI (2013), The Chinese Luxury Traveler Report 2012 http://www.china-outbound.com/fileadmin/template/pdf/Publications/CTA___HH_Travel -
