A Study Of Shanghai International Students’ Tourism Consumption Behavior Based On Cultural Differences

With China’s economy still remaining strong, more and more international students choose China as their study destination. While pursuing their studies, these students usually travel a lot in China as a way to also understand the Chinese culture. As Shanghai being the economy and financial center of China, as well as more internationalized city in China, it attracts many foreign students to come and study in China. According to2011statistics, there were47,731foreign students from180countries and regions enrolled in33universities in Shanghai and2research institutes. This paper investigates their travel behavior, with main goal being on analyzing their travel consumption behavior based on cultural differences. The sample consisted of270questionnaires of which250were finally considered valid for the study. The survey was done on international students from three countries, Korea, U.S. and Tanzania currently studying at three Universities in Shanghai; Donghua University, East China Normal University and East China University of Science and Technology. So the paper tries to find out any differences and similarities in tourism consumption behavior that might exist among these students when they travel in China. This was achieved through extensive review of the related literature to best understand the concept of travel behavior. In order to determine the students’ travel behavior, quantitative data analysis was done by means of SPSS and Microsoft excel.The literature review has revealed that students have specific characteristics which influence their travel behavior such as personal characteristics, perception, learning, motives and attitudes, social factors, and even more especially cultural or ethnic backgrounds. Therefore it is clear that although the student market seems homogeneous, heterogeneous differences do actually exist. In order to understand the students’travel behavior and capitalize on this market, information is needed about how the students make the decision to travel, which activities they like to pursue while on holiday, where and with whom these activities are pursued. In addition, knowledge of the tourism consumption behavior of students from different countries is important to help in segmentation of the student market in order to meet their specific needs.The findings of the research revealed that there are differences among the three groups of students in tourism consumption behavior. There were obvious differences on type of accommodation preferred, food, mode of transportation, type of travel, travel companions and shopping. Based on these findings some recommendations are offered on how to exploit this market.