An Investigation of Travel Behavior of Chinese International Students in the UK

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine, from a tourism perspective, the experience of Chinese international students in the UK. Three hundred twenty-one usable questionnaires were collected. This research suggests that the travel motivations of the students fall into the following four categories: relaxation, self-improvement, experiencing culture, and adventure. Certain similarities and differences of the travel behavior patterns between Chinese international students in the UK and their compatriots in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States were identified. Chinese students in the UK are generally satisfied with their travel experience in the UK. Furthermore, they are loyal customers, which is illustrated by their high intention of repeat visits and recommending the UK to friends/family. More than 42% of them had had visits from their families back in China since they arrived in the UK to study; this provides strong evidence for their importance to the visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market in the UK. The implications of these findings to educational institutions and the tourism industry in the UK are also discussed.

Travel behaviour of Mainland Chinese international students in Norway

“…Such findings also contradict with other studies on international students in general (Chadee & Cutler, 1996;Field, 1999;Frost & Shanka, 1999;Hsu & Sung, 1997;Shi et al, 2010;Sung & Hsu, 1996). While their choices were established, the reasons for such choices are further Furthermore, in a recent studies by Huang and Tian (2013), they discovered that travelling by trains is most frequently used by MCIS followed by bus and car. Evidently, mode of transport will depend on the study country, as in countries such as the UK and Norway, plane tickets are cheaper than trains (Huang & Tian, 2013).…”

“…In regards to accommodation choices, existing literatures reveal more contradictory findings as some studies believe that such segment prefers youth hostels due to budget constrains whereas other studies indicate that hotel and motels were preferred (Huang & Tian, 2013;Shi, Nakatani, Sajiki, Sawauchi, & Yamamoto, 2010;Xu et al, 2009). Huang and Tian (2013) also argue that mode of transport will depend on the destination as the in UK, low-cost airlines are cheaper than trains.…”

“…Anatolia, 28(3), 394-403. doi:10.1080Anatolia, 28(3), 394-403. doi:10. /13032917.2017 4 Existing studies also indicate that Asian international students including Chinese are more likely to travel in groups (of friends or relatives) than their European, Australian, and North American counterparts (Huang & Tian, 2013;Shanka, Ali-Knight, & Pope, 2002). This is mainly because they are often unfamiliar with the new environment (Gmelch, 1997).…”

“…Besides unfamiliar environment and safety issues, another reason is that they wanted to share the experience with others as indicated: The more experienced MCIS become in travelling in general, the more they become confident to conduct independent travelling (Huang & Tian, 2013). It can therefore be assumed that the younger generation of Chinese population such as MCIS are more experienced in travelling, compared to older generations.…”

“…Huang and Tian (2013) also argue that mode of transport will depend on the destination as the in UK, low-cost airlines are cheaper than trains. MCIS therefore prefer to travel by air rather than by car and train in other destinations such as Australia.…”