1.1 Background 1.1.1 Tourism Development in Hong Kong
Hong Kong, known as a “Shopping Paradise”, has attracted thousands of travellers from all over the world. It is one of the major economic pillars for Hong Kong. As China Government allows citizens to visit Hong Kong under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), Hong Kong has become one of the favourite tourism destinations of Mainland Chinese tourists (Hong Kong Economic Times, 2006). This situation has created tremendous business opportunities to the tourism industry. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (2006), Mainland China visitors reached 53.8% by the end of 2006 (Appendix I). Mainland Chinese tourists now play a significant role in the tourism industry in Hong Kong.
Figure 1.1 Comparison of Actual Number of Visitors (Extract from Appendix I)
1.1.2 Service Quality with Mainland China Tourists
Tourists have long been considering Hong Kong as one of the shopping paradises. Shopping in Hong Kong while they travel has become one of the important activities. Since the culture, consumer behaviour, and expenditure patterns of Mainland Chinese might be different from those from other countries, it is critical for the retail shops to provide tailor-made service in order to attract them to buy the products and services. It would be the primary concern of the Hong Kong tourism industry. Therefore, service quality plays an important role in increasing Hong Kong s’ tourism industry and attracting the largest inbound tourist market – Mainland Chinese. Previous observations indicated that customer satisfaction will lead to changes of decision-makers in the tourism industry (Zhang & Chow, 2004). It is necessary to analyse if this group of tourists are satisfied with the service quality experience in Hong Kong, and make recommendations to the retail shops on how to modify or improve their service quality in order to attract them.
1.2 Problem Statement
There are many retail shops in Hong Kong. There are no limitations or restrictions on which one can or cannot serve tourists. In fact, tourists have no limitation whatsoever in choosing which shop to buy from. Some service providers might be especially trained to deal with different nationalities of tourists, while some others do not focus in serving tourists. They all face the same situation, that is, any Mainland China tourist can walk in and select whatever they want as long as the tourist is satisfied with the product, price, quality of the product and the service. Therefore service quality in this research will apply to all retail shop service providers in Hong Kong whether their target customers are tourists or not. Although there have been a few studies exploring service quality in Hong Kong s’ many service sectors, such as tour guide (Zhang & Chow, 2004), travel agents (Lam & Zhang, 1999), and the hotel industry (Qu &Sit, 2007), little attention has been paid to shopping service. As shopping has become one of the most important motivations for Mainland Chinese to travel Hong Kong, it is therefore critical to examine tourists’ satisfaction with shopping service and enrich the knowledge in this field.
1.3 Research Objectives
The aim of this research is to examine whether Mainland China tourists are satisfied with their shopping experience, and whether they are satisfied with the service quality in the retail shop of Hong Kong. The research is expected to achieve the following objectives.
1) To identify the critical success factors for retail service providers in servicing Mainland China tourists;
2) To examine Mainland China tourists satisfaction with the service quality in the retail shop;
3) To identify methods for the retail shop to build customer satisfaction for Mainland China tourists;
4) To provide implications to decision-makers in the retail shop on how to enhance service quality to attract Mainland China tourists.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This study conducts a comprehensive approach in examining Chinese tourists’ satisfaction with shopping service quality in Hong Kong. The findings of this study will provide both academic and empirical contributions. Academically, the findings of this study will enrich and extend the concept that customer satisfaction may push decision-makers in the retail shop to change its service quality. Empirically, this study serves as a valuable source of information on how the Hong Kong retail shop may change its service quality to cater the culture and consumer behaviour of the Mainland China tourists. With regard to the student, this research will enhance his knowledge in service quality and tourism, which will prepare him for better career prospects in the future.
APPENDIX I
COMPARISON OF TOTAL INBOUND VISITORS FROM CHINA
AND ALL OTHER COUNTRIES TO HONG KONG
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