Abstract
As confidence in tourism consumption among Chinese residents steadily rebounds,the tourism market shows consistent signs of recovery, underscoring the vast potential for the development of the industry in China. According to the tourism economic data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2022, the number of trips hit a new high this year, with the May Day period was 230 million domestic trips, with a year-on-year growth of 1119.7%. There were long queues of scenic spots and tickets hard to get. Family tourism in China has gradually become an essential component of everyday life, playing a pivotal role that is increasingly acknowledged. However, given its relatively short development span, Chinese family tourism is transitioning from spontaneous market growth to a stage requiring market cultivation. Unfortunately, research on consumer demands for family vacations has not received adequate attention.The result is a challenge for businesses to accurately understand the objectives of family vacationers, leading to a mismatch in the supply and demand of tourism products and services. Simultaneously, family tourism represents a distinctive form of consumer behavior with nuanced expressions in both Eastern and Western cultural contexts. Hence, investigating the customer value of family tourism consumption in China holds significant practical relevance.
Research purpose: in this paper, Chinese family tourism consumption as the research object, to explore the structure of customer value, product attributes, consumption results and personal values of the elements of three levels, reveals the family tourism product attributes, consumption results and the internal connection between consumer personal values, and refining family tourism consumers main core value for the research goal.
Research technique: In this study, starting from the concept of customer value, using the approach-purpose theory, combined with the analysis of Chinese values, this studies and explores the value demands of Chinese consumers in the context of family tourism consumption. Through semi-structured interviews, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis, three dimensions of customer value in family vacation consumption emerged: image enhancement, fulfilling responsibilities, and family happiness. Subsequently, the Means-End Chain theory was employed, further the relationship between Chinese consumers' individual values were scrutinized, customer values, and the attributes of valued tourism products via a questionnaire of 161 consumers. These respondents were students of an MBA class of a university in a coastal city in eastern China. We randomly selected the respondents to participate in the interview, recorded the basic information of the respondents, and asked them whether they had had family travel experience, the main purpose of choosing family travel, and some gains and ideas in the process of travel.
Results indicated that: firstly, the dimension of image enhancement is influenced by the desire for face and the fear of losing face, prompting family vacation consumers to prioritize attributes such as entertainment facilities, parent-child activities, high-end services, cultural and natural environments, and sports and fitness. Secondly, the dimension of family happiness is shaped by family views and the desire for face, causing family vacationers to emphasize attributes like parent-child activities, accommodation conditions, natural environments, cultural environments, and sports and fitness. Thirdly, fulfilling responsibilities, as a core consumption outcome, influenced by two sets of values, leads decision-makers of family vacations to place greater importance on attributes such as entertainment facilities, parent-child activities, natural environments, and cultural environments.
Focusing on Chinese family tourism consumption, this paper explores the structure of customer value in family vacation consumption across three levels: product attributes, consumption outcomes, and individual values. It uncovers the intrinsic connections between product attributes, consumption outcomes, and consumer individual values, offering guidance and insights for the design and marketing of family vacation products. It can also help consumers choose their own tourism products more rationally. For example, high-standard and high-grade family travel trips may have a better market in China. The analysis and findings of Chinese consumers' family travel decisions, will inform the tourism industry to launch more accurate and rich products and services, inject greater impetus to promote the continuous improvement of China's family tourism industry in order to meet the needs of the majority of families for better holiday travel and a better life. Corresponding policies and measures can be formulated according to the characteristics and trends of family tourism consumption.