2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The role of intra-cultural and cross-cultural tourist-tourist interactions in the tourism service encounter
| Project/Area Number |
18K11864
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| Research Institution | Otaru University of Commerce |
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Principal Investigator |
Praet Carolus 小樽商科大学, 商学部, 教授 (40292081)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
鈴木 和宏 小樽商科大学, 商学部, 准教授 (10708366)
王 力勇 小樽商科大学, 商学部, 准教授 (70772466)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | social interaction / tourism marketing / service encounter / cross-cultural / segment compatibility / tourism |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Even though tourist experiences predominantly occur alongside other people, resulting in frequent social encounters and interactions between tourists, we know very little about these social interactions and how such exchanges affect a tourist’s overall experience. This project investigates both cross-cultural and intra-cultural tourist-tourist interaction and the role it plays in the overall visitor experience.
The first stage of the research project was the collection of qualitative data from domestic and international tourists in Japan. Qualitative interviews were primarily undertaken in Hokkaido, with some additional interviews conducted in Tokyo and Osaka. We conducted a total of 18 interviews in English, mainly with Western tourists, 28 interviews with Chinese tourists, and 26 interviews with domestic Japanese tourists.
We are currently analyzing the interviews with Western tourists and those with Japanese tourists. As part of the second stage, we conducted a quantitative online survey with Chinese tourists who have visited Japan. We have finished the analysis and are now drafting a paper for submission to an international tourism journal. Results of the Chinese data have been published as part of an invited paper in a special issue on tourism experiences of the Journal of Human Interface Society: Human Interface. A paper presented at the 2019 ATMC conference is scheduled to appear as a chapter of an edited book in 2020. We have also submitted a paper about our Chinese data to an international tourism journal and this is currently in its second round of review.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Due to our focus on the analysis data on Chinese tourists, the analysis of our data on Western and Japanese tourists has taken longer than expected.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We will continue to work on analysis and publication of our qualitative data. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on global tourism will force us to postpone quantitative surveys until inbound tourism to Japan returns to normal. We expect that it will be 2021 at the earliest before we can continue the collection of quantitative data on social interaction among tourists.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Due to COVID-19 international conference travel expenses were less than anticipated. We plan to allocate the unused FY 2019 budget to travel to international conferences and online survey expenditures in FY 2020 and may ask for an extension of the project to FY 2021 depending on how the COVID-19 crisis will affect global travel in FY2020.
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