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Assessing tourists' perceptions and behaviour through photographic andblog analysis: The case of Chinese bloggers and New Zealand holidays☆
Minghui Sun a,⁎, Chris Ryan b, Steve Pan c
a Auckland University of Technology, New Zealandb The University of Waikato, New Zealandc The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
☆ This article is a revised and expanded version of a papphotographs in blogs of Chinese visitors to New ZeChristchurch, New Zealand, Feburary 2013.⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +64 21 02305552.
This study used thematic analysis to identify the perceived destination image held by Chinese tourists to NewZealand. By analysing 6968 photographs from 384 blog entries posted by Chinese visitors, ten themes of NewZealand as a tourism destination were identified. The findings indicate a reinforcement of New Zealand's brand-ing based on natural landscapes but subsidiary purposes are of interest. These include the role of tourist bloggersas sources of information to their readers. Additionally the results indicate that content analysis of visual mate-rials in blogs, when read with accompanying text, provide rich information about perceived destination image.It is suggested that online photographs and blogs are not only valuable information sources for potential visitors,but also an effective way to understand the Chinese market. Based on the results, implications for destinationmarketing are discussed.
Manymarketers and researchers are attracted to the Chinesemarketbecause China is a fast growingmarket with numerous business oppor-tunities (Barboza, 2008; Johanson, 2008; Li, Harrill, Uysal, Burnett, &Zhan, 2010; Pan & Laws, 2002). However, Chinese outbound tourismis a multi-faceted phenomenon due to the diversity and complexity ofChinese market (Arlt, 2006). This implies that more research is neededto better understand the motivation and behaviour of Chinese visitors,and the role played by their cultural values. Yet, thus far, comparativelylittle research has been undertaken to explore photographs posted byChinese tourists on their blogs and social media and any implicationsthis may have for the structure of the tourism industry, both generallyand with specific reference to New Zealand. Given that there were 437million bloggers existing in China by the end of 2013 (CNNIC, 2014),an analysis of the photographs taken by Chinese bloggers and their ac-companying text has potential for the better understanding of theChinese market. A number of reasons dictate this importance. Firstbloggers have reasons for the taking of the photographs and the selec-tive process. This selective process is two-fold — first there are the rea-sons that dictate the taking of the photograph itself — i.e. why was thephotograph thought to possess importance? Second, a further selective
er entitled Examining the use ofaland presented at CAUTHE,
process is then involved: namely the actual selection of the photographto be used in the blog. The context of place of photograph taking andthen the second context of description of place come together in thefocus of photograph selection and blog writing.
The next reason for the importance of the study lies in the potentialimportance that the photographs may have on the image creation ofplace on the part of the readers of the blog — the pictures come to be aselected representation of the country. In the context of this study theseselections are based upon bloggers and readers' value systems, that is,upon a decision making process shaped by Chinese values and Chinesereactions to the pictures posted by other Chinese on their blog sites.
Photographs are therefore considered as an indispensable part ofChinese travel narratives. When compared with Western tourists,Chinese tourists are much more interested in posting large amounts ofphotographs in travel blogs (Volo, 2010). One possible reason for thisis that Chinese like to show friends and others that they have actuallybeen present in a location, thereby gaining ‘face’ (mianzi). Another rea-son is also rooted in Chinese culture. From Taoist beliefs, a harmony isperceived to exist between human beings and nature (Chen, 2001;Fan, 2000). Thismeans both in classical Chinese painting and in contem-porary photograph taking, representations of landscape are peopled im-ages. This differs from Western notions of nature derived from theromantic movement of the nineteenth century when nature was per-ceived to be at its best when “unspoilt” (Sofield & Li, 1998). A Chineseblogger's photograph may therefore contain several elements, whichin aggregate may become important sources of knowledge about Chi-nese preferences (Collier, 2001). In short, the taking of photographsmay itself be subject to cultural norms. Chinese photographers are
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thought to bemotivated to record their ownpresence in a place, therebylocating themselves as a complementary and harmonious part of a land-scape (Wu, 1989). This differs fromWestern perspectives that lead pho-tographers to photograph landscapes devoid of humans to betterpresent a ‘natural’ picture of place (Urry, 2002).
This study examines Chinese blogger's pictures of New Zealand. Thereasons for this included convenience as the authors are located in thatcountry, and the fact that China is now the second most importantsource of tourists to New Zealand. Additionally New Zealand representsan interesting case study given the differences between the twocountries, and additionally New Zealand features highly in surveys ofChinese as a desirable country to visit.
2. Literature review
The literature review comprises two related sections. The first re-lates to destination image creation, while the second relates to therole of photograph taking and the representation of place throughphotographs.
2.1. Destination image
With increasing destination choice becoming available to tourists, adestination must be differentiated from its competitors if it is to be suc-cessful. Given that, destination image is important for marketers andhas therefore been extensively analysed in the tourism literature. An-other reason for this past research is the complex conceptual nature ofthe purchase decision and the important role of image in influencingthe initial tourist decision making process (Choi, Liu, Pang, & Chow,2008) and the then subsequent behaviours and choice of evaluationcriteria when assessing satisfaction with the holiday. Sirgy and Su(2000) indicated that destination image includes two main compo-nents, that is, controllable and uncontrollable attributes. Controllable at-tributes relate to the classical marketing four Ps (product, price, placeand promotion) and uncontrollable attributes refer to tourists' personalcharacteristics that shape their selection and evaluation of images aspossessing importance. It is both essential for tourism marketers toidentify those controllable components and thus maximise patronageto the destination and to try to shape tourists' preferences throughmar-keting and promotional initiatives to achieve some control over the ‘un-controllable’ parts of the mix. At this point, understanding how touristsperceive the destinationmayhelp create an effectivemarketing strategydesigned to attract larger numbers or specific categories of tourists. Thepaper is therefore premised on the notion that blogs contain data ofvalue to bothwriters and readers, and through process such blogs influ-ence an assessment of place.
However, destination image perceived by tourists from varyingcountries may differ according to nationality and culture (Sirgy & Su,2000). Beerli and Martin (2004) conducted a tourist survey to measurethe cognitive component of the image, and concluded that country oforigin had a significant influence on image formation. Ryan and Cave(2005) supported this conclusion by drawing different perceptualmaps of Auckland based on subsamples of New Zealand, Chinese,Japanese and UK residents visiting the city. It is generally assumedthat people within the same culture share common beliefs, attitudes,customs, meanings, and behavioural norms, and through these distin-guish themselves from other groups (Triandis, 1972). Consequently ithas been found that images formed in theminds of tourists are mediat-ed by cultural background (MacKay & Fesenmaier, 1997). Yet again it isfound that tourism organisations need to understand the motivationsand the perceived image of that destination when attempting to pro-mote a particular destination to a specific market (Sussmann & Ünel,1999). It is concluded that while destinations try to attract touristswith professional photographs illustrating both attractions and imag-ery, an analysis of the photographs taken by tourists and disseminatedby them through social media is also of help in better understanding
the images of destinations held by tourists. Indeed in the latter caseone directly accesses data that show tourists helping confirm or createphotographs as being attractive and important to image construction.
Motivation is the main factor that influences tourism demand pat-terns. According to Murphy (1985), motivation is important for the de-velopment of tourism, because without the need or interest to travel,the tourism industry would not exist. Motivation is closely connectedwith expectation and satisfaction. In turn expectations are tentativerepresentatives of the future travelling experience in which touristshave a conscious feeling of desire (Gnoth, 1997). Equally satisfactionstudies cannot be isolated from motivation (Pizam, Neumann, &Reichel, 1979). Mill and Morrison (1992) tend to understand motiva-tion through satisfaction because motivation arises when an individualwants to satisfy a need. Thusmotivation has impacts on expectation andsatisfaction formation (Gnoth, 1997). For their part Hanefors andLarsson Mossberg (1999) introduced a model of travel escape motivesbased on the cultural background and individual characteristics ofJapanese package tourists. They suggest that compensation motivesare linked together with the prerequisite of a specific destination andthe activities offered there. At this point, cultural difference is a signifi-cant impact element for travelling motivation in the choice of destina-tion and the tourism activities.
Researchers have adopted various approaches to measure touristmotivation for the purpose of product development, service evaluation,image formation, and promotion (Fodness, 1994), and both quantitativeand qualitative methods have been applied in these studies (Pearce &Butler, 1993). Yet both methods have been criticised. The quantitativemethod is mainly criticised for being led by researcher-generated listof motivations (Bright, 2008), while the qualitative method may pro-vide rich information about themotivation, but the result remains prob-lematic because of tourists “unawareness” of their real motivations fortravelling (Buck, 1977). Based upon the need to discern “awareness”,Dann (1981) suggests the adoption of unobtrusive measures might bethe bestway to understand tourists'motivation. Researchersmay revealtourists' real motives through observation and reading their travelstories instead of depending on tourists' response to questions set by re-searchers (Dann, 1981).
2.2. The role of photograph taking
It has been noted above that tourists have different sets of motiva-tions for taking photographs during their trip, and Chalfen (1979) be-lieves that most tourists tend to document their “authenticexperience”. It is suggested that this is why the majority of tourist pho-tographs involve a set of images already seen in brochures, TVprogrammes, blogs and social networking websites (Jenkins, 2003;Urry & Larsen, 2011) as they confirm the sense of ‘being there’ at signedplaces (MacCannell, 1976). Many photographs also contain familymembers or friends because tourists engage significant others with sig-nificant places to produce their desired togetherness, wholeness and in-timacy (Haldrup & Larsen, 2006), especially from a Chinese culturalperspective. Robinson and Picard (2009) also indicate that taking pho-tographs is a sense of playfulness, especially for family or group tourists.Thus taking photographs is not only away of bringing the outsideworldhome by tourists (Robinson & Picard, 2009), but also a process of accu-mulating personal and family memories (Urry, 2002; Urry & Larsen,2011). Therefore, such an analysis helps to understand tourist behav-iour, if only at the level of following their itineraries. It has been arguedthat the motivation for taking photographs and the content of thesephotographs are fundamental issues related to visual culture and mod-ern society (Robinson & Picard, 2009).
Primarily because people seek tangiblememories of their travels, thedevelopment of photography and the expansion of tourism have beenclosely bound together (Balomenou & Garrod, 2010; Bell, 2010;Crawshaw & Urry, 1997; Garrod, 2009). Using digital cameras and mo-bile phones, photographs are today widely produced and stored in
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computers without any developing costs as was once common. Mean-while, the internet has become a new and efficientmode of disseminat-ing these photographs, especially at the time of travel. Online albumsposted on blogs and social networking sites have become exhibitionsof everyday life and thus have a significant value for anthropological re-search (Thompson, 2006).
Photographic research also provides an alternative to break thelimitations of descriptive written language. Thus, visual data providean opportunity for researchers to explore tourists' perceptions and ex-periences inasmuch as the tourists select photographic images onsome basis of importance. In general, the photographic analyticalmethods used in tourism can be broadly divided into three categories:1) photo-elicitation (Bell, 2010; MacKay & Couldwell, 2004); 2) partic-ipant-generated photographic method (Balomenou & Garrod, 2010;Dodman, 2003); and 3) content or semiotic analysis with secondarysources (Rakić & Chambers, 2012).
Secondary sources used for tourism research have included post-cards (Garrod, 2009;Markwick, 2001; Ryan &Huyton, 1998), brochures(Francesconi, 2011; Jenkins, 2003), and newspapers and magazines(Djafarova & Andersen, 2010). Most previous research that focused ontourist photographs have drawn heavily on professionally taken photo-graphs (Garrod, 2009; Robinson & Picard, 2009). On the other hand inthe past vernacular photographs attracted limited attention from thescholars because 1) personal photographswere stored in family albumsat homewhich were not easy to track (Holland, 2000); and 2) personalphotographs had no widespread influence compared with professionalbooks ormagazines, such as “National GeographicMagazine” (Robinson& Picard, 2009). However, today the internet provides a worldwidechannel for the distribution of personal photographs. Sharing thesame feature of voluntary behaviour with participant-generated photo-graphs, online photographs possessmore interest for researchers due totheir unmediated nature and in the online comments elicited fromviewers (Tussyadiah, 2010). Furthermore, like the log books used inparticipant-generated photography, the images placed on the weboften have detailed descriptions of why these photographs have beentaken and what they intend to express, and this is an integral part ofcontent analysis. Thus, photographs posted in travel blogs can be usedto understand the motivations and perceptions of tourists.
Certainly the analysis of photographic material has long been used byresearchers. For example Parker (2009) refers to the use of photographsby Collier in 1957 in undertaking research in earlymanagement research.Thus Warren (2005) notes “Photographic images are used as evidencethat the world is as it is— from travel brochures to post mortem reports,wedding photographs to text-books, closed circuit television footage togymmembership passes, and of course, published accounts— photogra-phy is used to say “this is who I am/this is how it was” in almost everysphere of life” (p. 872). Similarly Tyson (2009) also reinforces the role ofphotograph taking as reinforcing the perspective of the photographer —that it is a statement of what he or she believes to be important, and byextension, when blogging, or what he or she believes will be of interestto others, or in representations of self and/or place to others. In short,the analysis of photographic material has legitimacy when examiningrepresentations of place and how tourists relate to place.
3. Method
In order to answer the question of “what do Chinese tourists photo-graph about New Zealand?”, this research analysed photographs postedin Chinese travel blogs. It is also suggested that answers to this questionalso help identify the perceived image of New Zealand held by Chinesevisitors. Photographs for analysis were retrieved from the Google blogsearch engine using key words such as “New Zealand” and “travel”with reference to the Chinese market. Individual search engines varyby ranking implementations, and characteristics of display in ranked re-sults (Pan et al., 2007). Choosing one search engine ensures a constantresult but it might generate a bias in findings through different
frequencies of images posted by bloggers, and this does represent a po-tential limitation in an analysis such as this. Permission to replicate thephotographs selected in the study was obtained from the Chinesewebsites while the view taken by an ethics committee was that thema-terial was in the public domain and was basically of a secondary nature.
After the elimination of commercial, official posts, and non-travel re-lated posts, a total of 6968 photographs were found in 384 blog entriesposted in 2011 to 2013. To identify the emergent themes two ap-proacheswere undertaken, of which thefirst was only partially success-ful. The first means was premised on establishing a list of namedfeatures that could appear on the photographs and then generating amatrix with the two axes being a listing of items, scenes and activitiesnoted in a photograph, and second, simply the numerical sequencingof photographs. Thus the first photograph might comprise two malesplaying golf, thus leading to a categorisation of male, group, golf course,and golf playing. A second photograph might be a view from the golfcourse, leading to a classification of golf course, lake, and scene. Thecells formed by thematrixwould then benoted ashaving a photograph-ic feature present or absent, thereby setting up a matrix comprising di-chotomous variables. Such a matrix can then be analysed by principalcomponent analysis to identify the principal underlying dimensionsthat inform the matrix. This approach was based on previous work un-dertaken by Marti (1993) and then subsequently refined by Sun, Ryan,and Pan (2014).
Fig. 1 shows the initial layout for this process using the programNCSS. It indicates that 553 classifications were initially identified acrossall of the bloggers' photographs for undertaking the statistical analysis.Essentially the process was based on non-emotional and physical char-acteristics of place and followed the principles enunciated by Saldaña(2009).
Running the software generated an initial result of 31 classificationsthat possessed eigenvalues greater than one. The software also generat-ed a series of plots that helps one to refine the analysis. Thiswas done interms of initial micro plots as demonstrated in Fig. 2 that could be sub-sequently enlarged as shown in Fig. 3.
Given the large numbers of photographs and classifications it was infact much easier to work from the plots than from the statistical tablesfor the reason that it was difficult to observe clear patterns due to thesheer volume of respondents and relationships where p b 0.001. Fig. 2indicates a very tight clustering around two dimensions in most in-stances. The numbers referred to the dichotomous variables that creat-ed the cluster and in this case, for example, item 19 relates to AucklandBeach, item261 to friends in a Redwood Forest, item 220 to friendswitha helicopter, item 228 to a family on a cruise and so on, leading to an in-terpretation of family's and friends' social interaction. Unfortunately theprocess proved to be both time consuming and equally far from beingwholly successful due to an over-refinement of classifications that gen-erated small cell sizes and hence long tails of data. Consequently 31 clas-sifications were further collapsed into the 10 final ones that aredescribed below. So, in this case of Fig. 3 the social interaction factorwas collapsed into a slightly wider ‘people’ factor and ‘activities’ factorwhen other dimensions were identified.
The second approach was done manually with broad categories as-sociated with the above frequency count analysis. Photographs wereanalysed individually and sequentially and grouped into different classi-fications as above according to the photographic content and descrip-tions in blog entries. One photograph might fall into several categoriesdue to the subjects it contained. During the coding process, the originalbroad categories were adjusted according to the conveyed informationof each photograph. Finally 408 categories were identified. These cate-gories were then classified into ten themes: general natural scenery,specific scenery, urban scenery, people, travel activities, accommoda-tion, transportation, meals, travel information, and fauna, each ofwhich was thought consistent with the statistical findings notedabove. Overall, the highest proportion of photographs fell into the cate-gory of “general natural scenery”, followed by “people” and “urban
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scenery”. Each of these themes is going to be discussed respectively inthe following text. This process was primarily undertaken by the firstauthor and then samples were checked by the second author to assesslevels of congruency between the two — and congruency tended to bewell over 80% after a first round, and then after discussion over individ-ual instances total agreement would then be achieved.
In defining the classifications it should be noted that individual photo-graphic images were interpreted in conjunction with the accompanyingtext in the blogs. Examples of the text are provided in the text below —
Fig. 2. Example of ini
and are translations from the original Mandarin. The text provides in-sights as to the meaning of the images, who the featured people were,the locations of the photographs (and hence the itineraries being follow-ed) and often the reasons for the taking of the photographs. Equally inabout two-thirds of instances the text and photographs provided cluesas to the nature of the tour—with bloggers making comments about fel-lowgroupmembers, or the freedomof being able to follow their own itin-erary. The photographs themselves also highlight and bring ‘to life’comments in the text.
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4. Results and discussions
“General natural scenery” refers to landscapes containing moun-tains, lakes, beaches and pastoral views (see Fig. 4). The top five catego-ries belonging to this classification are: mountains (1104 photographs),trees (1072 photographs), lakes (963 photographs), sea (798 photo-graphs), and grassland (680 photographs). It is not surprising that “gen-eral natural scenery” is themost frequent subject because TourismNewZealand emphasises landscape features in its “100% pure” campaign as aprimary reason for visiting New Zealand. Chinese tourists' love of land-scape has its cultural roots. There is a Chinese proverb that “the virtuouslove the mountains, while the wise love the water”. Sturdy and uprightmountains and lively and tolerant waters constituted the utmost har-mony in theworld of nature which is also reflected in the Chinese beliefof “Yin and Yang” from Taoism (Chen, 2001). The common features ofthe photographs taken by Chinese tourists were the sky-scapes of bluesky and white cloud (250 photographs) and rainbows (40 photo-graphs). Sun, Zhang, and Ryan (2015) suggest a number of reasonswhy such photographs are popular. They explain that there are connec-tions in terms of classical concepts of feng shui and the relationships ofyin and yang, emphasising that these relationships are always relativewithin the combinations being considered. Thus they provide the exam-ple of ‘hard’ rock of the mountain against the ‘soft’ quality of water. Asecond possible reason lies in the original place of residence of the ma-jority of these tourists that are known to be Beijing, Shanghai andGuangzhou (CTA, 2014). These cities are known to suffer from air pollu-tion and hence the fresh air and the protected ecological environment of
Fig. 4. A typical scenery photograph contains mountain, lake, and tree.Photo: W0104-P6 from blog.sina.com.cn.
New Zealand are attractive to Chinese tourists. As W15 indicated in herblog:
“After taking off, a double rainbow appeared in front of us!Weare livingin such a city with heavy pollution. I have never seen a rainbow inShanghai since primary school. Once a rainbow appeared in the sky lastyear, whichwas reported on the front page of the newspaper, but unfor-tunately, I did not see. Every time when I saw a rainbow (in NewZealand) I was excited to death.”
The classification of “people” is the secondmost popular subject thatappeared in travel photographs. Apart from Chinese figures of familymembers and friends, other ethnic groupings that appeared in travelphotographs seem to act as symbols of local culture and lifestyles withseveral photographs of European New Zealanders relaxing in the sun,playing sport, being on the beach or having a barbeque. Chinese touriststook 629 photographs related to people of European appearance. Thesephotographs tended to showa Chinese perception of a Pakeha culture inNew Zealand as being relaxed, sport loving and liking the outdoors. Inthe eyes of Chinese tourists, most local people are living a relaxing lifewithout pressure. Occupying about 15% of New Zealand's population,Maori people accounted for a much smaller proportion (5%) of the pho-tographs in the Chinese travel blogs. Of these the great majority wasphotographed in Rotorua, or more specifically, in one of the touristMaori villages. Possible reasons for this lay outside the purview of thisresearch, but the finding does accord with recent work completed byDu, Liu, Liu, and Ryan (2011) conducted at Rotorua in reports for TePuia that noted what may be termed a relative lack of interest inMaori culture by Chinese visitors, who primarily visited such locationsfor purposes of being entertained. However people fromAsian countriesare occasionally photographed by Chinese tourists to indicate themulti-cultural nature society in New Zealand.
“Urban scenery” is the third popular theme in these photographs.Queenstown is the most frequently photographed city (899 photo-graphs), followed by Rotorua (803 photographs), Auckland (702photographs), Christchurch (692 photographs), and Dunedin (362 pho-tographs). This in itself is indicative of tourist itineraries. The frequentlyvisited attractions appearing in travellers' photographs in these mainpopular destinations are shown in Table 1. Apart from these urban vis-itor attractions, tourists tried to catch a sense of the urban byphotographing streets, townhouses, historic and modern buildings,parks, shops, universities, and statues.
“Specific natural scenery” refers to natural attractions promoted byTourism New Zealand as identified from their web pages and promo-tional material. Being promoted as one of the world's greatest naturalwonders, Milford Sound received more attention than many otherplaces. This focus of attention is shared with Mirror Lake, Eglinton Val-ley, the Chasm, and Homer Tunnel because these viewing spots are ontheway toMilford Sound. Glacier views are the secondmost popular el-ement in this theme. Visiting glaciers is the “must do” activity for all Chi-nese tourists who visited the west coast of South Island. From thesephotographs, it is easy to distinguish the activities the tourists under-took, such as following the walking tracks, and taking guided glacier
Table 1Frequently visited travel spots in popular destinations.
Destinations Attractions
Queenstown Lake Waktipu, Walter Peak Farm, TSS Earnslaw, Bob's peakRotorua Agrodome Farm, geothermal phenomena, Maori village,
Redwoods ForestAuckland Mt Eden, SkytowerChristchurch Cathedral Church, Avon river, Tram, Metal ChaliceDunedin Dunedin Railway Station, Sandfly Bay, Baldwin Street,
Otago Royal Albatross CentreWanaka Lake Wanaka, Puzzling WorldTekapo Town Lake Tekapo, Good Shepherd ChurchTe Anau Lake Te Anau
Fig. 5. Advisory speed limit of the road fromWanaka to Queenstown.Photo: S1813-P2 from blog.sina.com.cn.
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walks, and heli-hikes. Some other specific natural scenery was alsophotographed, such as Moeraki Boulders, Pancake Rocks, glow-wormcaves, Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, and Lake Matheson.
Taking photographs of “fauna” inhabiting New Zealand was a plea-sure for Chinese tourists. Many Chinese commented in their blogsabout the high ratio of sheep to people, a comment that is often notedby tour guides when escorting tourists in New Zealand and a featureof the country that becomes better known through its retelling onblogs such as those analysed in this study. Sheep grazing in fields is con-sidered as one of the most typical views of New Zealand by the Chinesebloggers. As a result, sheep are the most photographed animals intraveller's blogged photographs. Alpaca also received attention becauseof the Chinese internet jokes in which Alpacawas listed among the “tenmythological animals” to tease Chinese internet censorship. Other wild-life can be seen in the photographs and include seagulls, ducks, pen-guins, swans, and some marine mammals.
Most photographs of airplanes and airports being posted in the blogssymbolised the start or finishing points of a journey, except that somebloggers were fond of photographing clouds and landscapes from theflights. Since most Free and Independent Tourists (FIT) were driving ahired car, rented cars are the subject of many photographs. Along withthese photographs of their rented cars, bloggers normally describedthe brand, model, engine size, rental companies, and the process ofpicking up cars. Trains, buses, and rail and bus stations were mostlyphotographed by those in group tours or by backpackers. TheTranzAlpine train travelling between Christchurch and Greymouth fre-quently appeared in the photographs of those in group tours, and thetrip is also an indispensable part of the regular 11 days itinerary soldin China. Road signs were also the subject of photographs that postedon the blogs with a motive of providing travel information for potentialtourists. Rarely seen in China, advisory speed limit signs for curves onthe road were frequently photographed by bloggers. Blogger S18drove on the road from Wanaka to Queenstown via Cardrona ValleyRoad, which was described as the “Devil road” by other previous visi-tors. S18 described this in his blog in the following way:
“There are two routes fromWanaka to Queenstown, one is SH6which is120 kilometers, and another is this mountain road which is 80kilometres. A lot of previous visitors described this mountain road asthe devil road, with continuous curves, extremely dangerous. I'm curi-ous about it……I found that there are really more curves, however, asdifficult as the Abel Tasman Sandy Bay Road……I can even maintaina speed of 80 km until a scenic look out. It is indicated that this is thehighest elevation highway in New Zealand. After that, the road quicklybecame curvy with many hairpin curves just as previous visitors de-scribed. Here is a warning sign “try to test your brake now”. Then wesaw this advisory speed limit sigh which was the most exaggerated fig-ures we have seen for the whole journey in New Zealand (Fig. 5)……
after all, this road is a short cut to Queenstown, much nearer than SH6”.
There are 105 photographs shot inWestern restaurants, followed byphotographs taken in Asian restaurants, fast food restaurants, and Chi-nese restaurants. The most photographed are Fergburger in Queens-town, the Queenstown Skyline Restaurant, Larnach Castle & Gardensin Dunedin, and Kaikoura Seafood BBQ. The Lonely Planet guide was re-vealed to be an important information source for FIT visitors. Conse-quently bloggers specifically mentioned going to Kaikoura SeafoodBBQ and Redcliff Café because they are recommended by Lonely Planet.According to Chang, Kivela, and Mak (2010), Chinese tourists considerlocal food as a “peak touristic experience”, and share their experienceswith their friends. This comment can be confirmed here because somebloggers took photos of both the outside and inside of the restaurants,and even every dishwhen they had dinner in local restaurants made fa-mous by other blogs or travelogues. Another facet of dining experiencesarose from the commonpractice ofmotels and backpacker accommoda-tions providing fully equipped kitchens. For Chinese tourists, cooking
for one's self is not only a cheap way to have tasty food, but also anew experience when cooking with tourists from all over the world ashappens to those using backpacker accommodation.
Chinese tourists also liked to record specific activities that reflect adifferentexperience from their daily patterns of life, especially when referencing theirown activities such as farm trips, visiting Maori villages, taking winery trips,and visitingweekendmarkets. Other noted activities included glacierwalking,using walking tracks, skyline riding, punting on the Avon River, taking glassbottom boat trips, whale-watching, and playing golf. Adventure activities area unique selling point for New Zealand. However, while the majority of Chi-nese tourists expressed some interest in adventure activities and storedthese activities in their camera, it was rare to see someone actually involvedin them. They tended to be passive onlookers of others being engaged inthese activities. This finding tentatively leads to the conclusion that Chinesetourists are not likely to try adventure activities, or, alternatively adventure ac-tivities are not promoted on the mainland as much as in other countries. Onthe other hand, it has been suggested that Confucian concepts offilial duty in-hibit people from taking unnecessary risks while equally parents do not en-courage their children to take physical risks (Guidotti, 2005).
Chinese tourists liked taking photographs of accommodation afterthey have checked in. However, it is difficult to say what kind of accom-modation is preferred by Chinese tourists from these blogs because peo-ple with different travel styles make different choices. Drawing on datagenerated from reports for Tourism New Zealand and from the interna-tional visitor survey (e.g. Ryan, 2013) generally speaking, nearly allescorted tours are accommodated in hotels. FIT travellers have a morediversified choice pattern according to their different budgets, such ashotels, motels, and backpacker accommodations. Holiday parks andfarm stays are rarely used by Chinese bloggers. These preferences areconfirmed by the photographs. Most photographs of accommodationshowed some special features, for example, the long history and Britishstyle of Princes Gate Hotel, the alpine views of the Top House, and theChinese style decoration of Sky Tower Hotel during Chinese spring fes-tival. BloggerW29was touched by the comfortable sense of home.W29photographed the followingmessage he left in the visitors book (Fig. 6):
“Just as a lot of people mentioned here, it is a hostel, but different fromYHA and BBH, it really gives people a feeling of home. When I put downthe luggage, I went to the supermarket. It sounded really weird for methat I spent the whole afternoon here without going to the lake and tak-ing pictures. It has an ideal location, a reasonable price, and the mostimportant thing is the feeling of home. People from different countriesgathered here, so warm and happy.”
Many bloggers tried to give more information to readers, especiallyto potential visitors. Leaflets were the most photographed travel docu-ments to show the activities bloggers were going to try or destinations
Fig. 6. Note book in Matterhorn South Lodge and backpackers in Wanaka.Photo: S2902-P14 from blog.sina.com.cn.
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that they had not visited this time. Photographs of notice boards wereposted with the motivation to better recall the place after returninghome, and also to give a blog reader a clear statement about wherethe blogger had visited. I-site offices were appreciated bymany tourists,and photographs of i-siteswere posted to tell others that thesewere themost helpful places as the first stop for information. Many bloggerspostedmaps to give readers an overviewof the tripwhich is particularlyhelpful for potential tourists who are planning their trip (see Fig. 7).
5. Conclusions and implications
Photographic analysis provides rich information about Chinesebloggers travelling to New Zealand. The findings may also encouragetourism destinations to join the largest, and most active Chinese socialmedia & digital market by posting their own materials.
Cultural background influences travel behaviour and is the point ofbeginning to understand the Chinesemarket. Since amajor Chinese tra-dition is Taoism, themajority of Chinese appreciate a sense of harmonybetween human and nature (Chen & Wu, 2009), although this classicalallusion is being increasingly questioned (Sun et al., 2014, 2015) as pop-ulations grow, and consumerism and urbanisation occur as described inChun Sue's controversial novel Beijing Doll. When this harmony is not
Fig. 7. Itinerary ofPhoto: S1803-P1 f
easy to find in China because of its huge population and environmentaldegradation, a protected ecological environment in New Zealand hassignificant attractive appeal for Chinese tourists. Based on Chinese cul-tural values of harmony, and “mountain and water”, the concept of“100% Pure” of New Zealand appeals to Chinese tourists. The datafrom this study indicates that the promotional focus should still concen-trate on unspoiled nature, blue sky andwhite clouds, original landscape,and abundant fauna and flora resources. Photographs and videos illus-trating humans and nature, especially humans together with animals,can convey the sense of harmony and can also be widely used in mark-ing activities. According to MacCannell (1976), tourists seek the exotic,primitive, and natural destinations that are absent from their ownworld. Thus this natural and harmonious sense of New Zealand can besold as a key national symbol to attract Chinese tourists.
With five thousand years of history and culture, Chinese tourists alsowish to experience a different culture during their overseas travel. Differ-ing fromTourismNewZealand's promotion ofMaori culture, Pakeha cul-ture seems to be perceived asmore representative ofmainstream culturein New Zealand and is an attraction for Chinese visitors, many of whomwish to establish a link with a mainstream English speaking world and aculture that is perceived as being relaxed in comparison with their own(see also Ryan & Zhang, 2007). These findings also indicate that Chinesetourists are also attracted to the multi-cultural nature of society in NewZealand in that they perceive many of Chinese ethnicity to be residentsinNewZealand. To some extent, Chinese elements appearing during Chi-nese festivalsmight bewelcomed by Chinese tourists when visiting NewZealand as a reassurance factor, and as ameans of seeing how their com-patriots arewelcomedwithin the host society. It is suggested that duringtraditional Chinese festivals, local restaurants and resorts should pro-mote some special packages focusing on the Chinesemarket, and engagewith the local Chinese communities to better provide activities, eventsand celebrations in which the Chinese visitor can join. The presenceand promotion of such events may also help overcome inhibitionsamong Chinese about travelling overseas during such periods.
There are certain differences between tourists attending escortedgroup tours and free independent travellers (FIT). From the clues inthe text as to type of tour being undertaken it seems that FIT touriststended to travel more and take more photographs than tourists inescorted groups. According to Wen, Pan and Laws (2002), the Chineseshow a strong inclination to a group orientation. Thus, in the longterm, tourism companies can seek a continuation of tour businessfrom China, but it is suggested that the simple and homogeneous
132 M. Sun et al. / Tourism Management Perspectives 12 (2014) 125–133
offering is increasingly unable to satisfy special demands from themoreexperienced and sophisticated Chinese tourists. As it is, many grouptourists mentioned that they would prefer a wider choice of menus orrestaurant choice for dining, where such arrangements can affordgood opportunities to try something different.With an increasing num-ber of opportunities to take outbound tours, Chinese tourists are con-suming more flexible and varied itineraries (Cai, Boger, & O'Leary,1999; Ong & du Cros, 2012; Osti, Turner, & King, 2009). Morepersonalised, customised, and in-depth tourism products will seeming-ly be more welcomed, and many of the blogs reinforce this emergingpreference on the part of the Chinese market place. Reading the differ-ent blogs reinforces the same messages of a market place increasinglywishing to escape from standardised tours to ‘do their own thing’.
From this perspective it is noted that adventure activities are aunique selling point for New Zealand. The majority of Chinese touristsfrom mainland China expressed an interest in observing adventure ac-tivities and stored these activities in their camera but often they werephotographs of non-party members. This finding tentatively leads tothe conclusion that overseas Chinese aremore likely to try ‘gentle intro-ductions’ to adventure activities, or, alternatively itmight be that adven-ture activities are not promoted on the mainland as much as in othercountries. Equally, traditionally Chinese people have not been encour-aged to take physical risks due to Confucian concepts and filial conceptsof care between the generations. However, in this respect one can reportanecdotal evidence from companies such as SkyDive Wanaka (whohave Mandarin language web pages advertising their company) whostate that those of Chinese ethnicity account for the second largestgroup of clientele (Price, 2013).
It has also been observed that the Chinese tend to not complain be-cause of “Junzi Aspiration” (Lee & Sparks, 2007), that is a wish to be as a‘knight’ to do good for others (for a discussion of the relationship be-tween junzi and shen (spirit) see Kaptchuk, 2000, page 57 on). One im-plication of this is that it is not easy to obtain direct answers fromquestionnaires about the deeper feelings of Chinese tourists. The useof photographs has proven to be a useful culturally neutral means ofeliciting views (Sun et al., 2015), and it is suggested that they are visualrepresentation of information that ismore intuitive than text basedma-terial alone. Combing photographswith text in travel blogs provides de-tailed, first-hand information about restaurants, accommodation, andtransport with a motive of providing travel information for potentialtourists, and is thought to possess more legitimacy than other guide-books due to the nature of the authorship. Since the peer group is byfar the most significant determinant for the decision making process,electronic word of mouth (e-wom) has come to be considered as an im-portant information source for destinations (Yao, Xu, Li, & Yang, 2011).Additionally Liu (2008) and Liu and Ryan (2011) indicated that interna-tional students had a strong influence in the VFRmarket andwere a cat-alyst for relatives and friends to visit New Zealand. Their social mediaand the domestic (New Zealand) Chinese language media such asSkykiwi all play a confirming role in providing information for Chinesevisitors coming to New Zealand.
The internet has nowbecome a part of life for a considerable numberof people in China. Consequently, as the biggest internet market of theworld, digital marketing is essential for marketers to promote destina-tions to the Chinesemarket. At the time of writingmost of the informa-tion posted in the Chinese official website of Tourism Zealand is directlytranslated from English, and it is suggested that these websites shouldbe rewritten to better meet the needs of Chinese tourists throughcontextualising material in a Chinese cultural setting.
One of the specific findings of this study indicates that self-drivetravellers have more specific demands than do regular group tourists.Currently, given the use made of blogs by Chinese tourists as a meansof giving and exchanging information, the existing brochures andwebsites of Tourism New Zealand fail to wholly meet the increasing de-mands of self-drive Chinese tourists. From some viewpoints this canonly be expected as it is costly to continually generate up to date
materials in different languages in different brochures, but equally it im-plies that simply being present on a web page is no longer sufficient —rather an interactive presence on blogs and Weibo may be required.This would imply that bodies such as Tourism New Zealand need tohave staff to sustain interactive communications with Chinese internetusers, and this poses challenges for government sponsored organisa-tions that tend to have bureaucratic cultures. This challenge in itself rep-resents a research project for the future.
The study reinforces the notion that photographs displayed in blogsare statements about tourists and the places that they visit. The photo-graphic material is given added piquancy by the accompanying text.Such text reinforces the notion of the role of culture as the filter throughwhich image is interpreted. What the text makes clear is that while aphotograph of a mountain stands as an objective image of a mountain,the reference setwithinwhich it is interpreted is verymuchdeterminedby culture. In that sense this paper represents the commencement andnot a conclusion of a research project.
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Dr Sun Minghui comes from Beijing and completed herMaster's degree at North Western University in SouthAfrica. For many years she has worked in the outboundChinese tourism industry taking Chinese clients to experi-ence the Safari Parks of South Africa. Minghui's doctoral re-search was related to Chinese visitors to New Zealand andthe nature of their blogs about New Zealand. After complet-ing her research Mindy went on to complete projects forthe China–New Zealand Tourism Research Centre withinthe Department. Minghui is currently Research Officer ofNew Zealand Tourism Research Institute, AUT University.During her research Minhui won best research papersawards at the Graduate Students Annual Research Confer-
ence at theManagement School of the University ofWaikato.
Professor Chris Ryan is Professor of Tourism at theUniversi-ty of Waikato and Director of the China–New Zealand Tour-ism Research Unit. He serves in an advisory capacity onCommittees relating to Chinese tourism to New Zealand forthe New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Em-ployment. Chris is an Honorary Professor of the UniversityofWales, and Visiting Professor at Emirates Academy, Dubai,Beijing International Studies University andHongKong Poly-technic University. His awards include those for researchwinning papers (including recognition from the Beijing So-cial Sciences Committee) and a life time achievement awardfrom the TaiwanAssociation for Recreation and Leisure Stud-ies.
Dr Steve Pan is an Assistant Professor of School of Hotel andTourismManagement, The Hong Kong Polytechnic Universi-ty. He worked in the news department of a TV company inTaiwan for 11 years before pursuing his doctoral degree atthe University ofWaikato, New Zealand. His researchmainlyfocuses on travel journalism discourse and representation ofdestinations. He is also interested in applying the study oftravelogues to the understanding of tourism concepts.
