Place Image Formation and Cross‐Border Shopping: German Shoppers in the Polish Bazaar in Słubice

Abstract

This study focuses on differences in place image formation between cross-border shoppers who visit the bazaar in the Polish part of the border-crossing town of Frankfurt--Oder/Słubice. By examining the German--Polish border context and the historical and regional particularities of this shopping destination, our qualitative analysis reveals differences in place image formation between two groups of German border crossers: locals from Frankfurt--Oder and visitors from other parts of the borderland. It turns out that the locals regarded the border-crossing town as part of daily life and had lost interest in the bazaar, while cross-border shoppers from further afield visited the bazaar regularly, were motivated by leisure, and assessed the bazaar more positively. These differences in place image formation between the two groups resulted from differences in mind-set and motivation, influencing not only the knowledge and experiences of the border crossers, but also the likelihood of visiting this specific shopping destination again.

Travel preferences of Finnish cross-border tourists: Opportunities and limitations for Russian Karelia

“…The relationships between tourism activities and cross-border shopping have been investigated more (e.g., Kreck, 1985;Timothy & Butler, 1995;Wang, 2004;Wachowiak & Engels, 2006;Sullivan et al, 2012). These studies often take the form of a case study and are predominantly framed as two-country cases: Denmark-Germany (Makkonen, 2016), Switzerland-Germany (Ramsey et al, 2019), Poland-Germany (Malkowski et al, 2020;Szytniewski & Spierings, 2018). A number of studies have tried to understand the main factors determining satisfaction of tourists with their shopping experience (Egresi, 2017).…”

Impact of Cross-Border Tourism on the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas in the Russian–Polish and Russian–Kazakh Borderlands

“…However, not only the transport infrastructure has an impact on the development of tourism. In cross-border regions, it is possible to demonstrate the influence of political factors on tourist activity [60], especially in the case of shopping tourism [61][62][63]. Despite the great interest in shopping by tourists from Russia, the majority of them are works devoted to the Polish-Russian border, with relatively little interest in shopping tourism on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan.…”

Where day trippers and tourists go: comparing the spatio-temporal distribution of Mainland Chinese visitors in Hong Kong using Weibo data

“…The use of retail facilities is then often combined with the consumption of cultural, catering and entertainment retail facilities as well as tourist landmarks (Spierings & van der Velde, 2013). Moreover, undertaking recreational shopping is also a more important visiting motive for people living further away from the border than for people living nearby (Spierings & van der Velde, 2013;Szytniewski & Spierings, 2018).…”

“…By contrast, visitors from the rest of Mainland China mainly concentrate on downtown areas, including Ocean Park, Hung Hom, Tsim Shai and Central, which are related to a variety of leisure activities. These areas often comprise a mix of cultural, catering, entertainment and retail facilitiesmaking them appealing for the performance of recreational shopping which is also a more important visiting motive for people living further away from the border (Spierings & van der Velde, 2013;Szytniewski & Spierings, 2018).…”